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Scientific Soil Culture Series 



RICHARD A. HASTE, Editor 



Manual of Soil Culture — Campbell 
Wheat— TenEyck 

" IN PREPARATION 

The Soil— JVillard 

Plant Growth — Haste 

Soil Tillage— C^;A//>/'f// 

Soil Biology— So/Z^j 

Orchard and Small Fruits — Stephens 

Plant Breeding — Buffum 

Irrigation and Drainage — Haste 

Manual of Soil Culture, two volumes — Campbell 

Farm Management — Haste 



Campbell Soil Culture Publishing Co. 

Lincoln, Nebraska 



WHEAT 



Practical Discussion of the Raising, 

Marketing, Handling and Use of the 

Wheat Crop, Relating Largely 

to the Great Plains Region 

of the United States 

and Canada 



BY 

A. M. TEN EYCK 

Professor of Soils, Agricultural Extension Department, Iowa State 

College. Formerly Professor of Agronomy and Professor 

of Farm Management, Kansas State Agricultural 

College and Superintendent i^t. Hays 

Branch Experiment Station. 



FIRST EDITION 



LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 
CAMPBELL SOIL CULTURE PUB. CO. 

1914 






Copyrighted by Campbell Soil Culture Pub, Co. 
1914 



t 

FEB 24 1914 

S)C!A369132 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introduction 9 

II. Habits and Types 15 

III. Seed Improvement 29 

IV. Soil, Climate and Cultivation . . 38 
V. Wheat Seeding and- Cultivation . . 59 

VI. Harvest and Yield 70 

VI I. Threshing and Marketing .... 81 

VIII. Wheat Enemies 92 

IX. Maintaining Soil Fertility .... 100 

X. Wheat on the Pacific Coast ... 122 

XL Wheat Growing in Canada . . . 134 

XII. Culture Methods 146 

XIII. Rotation of Crops 157 

XIV. Seeding Machinery 163 

APPENDIX 

Individual Practices 169 

How to Run a Binder 187 

Index 192 



PREFACE 

This little book deals largely with the wheat 
culture of the Great Plains region of the United 
States and Canada, but the writer has attempted 
also, to give some general information on the 
raising, marketing, handling and use of the wheat 
crop. This book is not technical but treats the 
subject in a practical way and is written especially 
for the study and use of those who are engaged 
in wheat farming. 

During my fifteen years experience in wheat 
farming, five years in North Dakota and ten years 
in Kansas, in connection with the state agricul- 
tural colleges, I have gained some special knowl- 
edge of culture methods and practice which may 
be of value to others who are engaged in the wheat 
growing business. In preparing the following 
pages I have also consulted other authorities on 
the subject and have frequently quoted from wheat 
books and bulletins, I wish to refer especially 
to ''Cereals in America" by Thomas F. Hunt, 
and the ''Book of Wheat" by Peter Tracy Dond- 
linger as being among the best authorities on the 
subject. For the illustrations shown in figures 1, 
4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 22, I am 
indebted to the courtesy of the Kansas experi- 
ment station and the Ft. Hays branch station. 

Perhaps this book is hardly worthy of a formal 
dedication, but I wish to present it with my heart- 
iest good wishes to the dry land farmers of the 



western plains and the Pacific slope, hoping that 
it will help them to solve the great problems of 
western agriculture, help to make dry farming 
profitable and permanent and thus establish the 
homes and happiness of those splendid men and 
women of the great west. 

A. M. Ten Eyck, 
Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. 
Jan. 1, 1914 



Chapter I 



INTRODUCTION 

Wheat is the world's greatest cereal crop. Both 
corn and oats exceed wheat in bulk, but by weight 
the four great cereals rank in the order of their 
production as follows: Wheat, corn, oats, rice. 
It may be of interest to observe that in bulk or 
bushels oats ranks first, corn second, wheat third, 
and rice fourth. But as a food for human con- 
sumption, wheat ranks first, rice second, corn 
third, and oats fourth. Rice and wheat were the 
grains of the early eastern civilizations. Corn 
was the great food plant of the natives of Central 
and North America. Rice is today the chief food 
of half of the people of the earth. 

THE world's production OF CEREALS 

In the United States the order of production is 
in part reversed, corn ranking first, wheat second, 
and oats third by weight; but in bulk, oats ranks 
second and wheat third. Rice is grown to only a 
limited extent in the United States but it is the 
principal grain crop of China, India, Japan and 
other Asiatic countries. The agricultural year 
book gives the total yield of these grains in the 
world and in the United States in 1910 as follows: 

(9) 



10 



WHEAT 



United State's Crop World's Crop 

1. Wheat... 695,443,000 bushels. . . 3,650,952,000 bushels 

2. Corn . 3,125,713,000 bushels. . . 3,672,636,000 bushels 

3. Oats 1,126,765,000 bushels. . . 4,146,512,000 bushels 

4. Rice *710,289,000 pounds. . . 190,186,068,000 pounds 

*Crop of 1909. 

The world's crop of wheat in 1910 was produced 
as follows: 



Bushels 
North America . 855,433,000 
South America . 159,753,000 
Europe 1,952,531,000 



Bushels 

Asia 508,152,000 

Africa 72,886,000 

Australasia 102,197,000 



Total 3,650,952,000 

LARGEST WHEAT PRODUCING STATES 

The states producing more than 25,000,000 
bushels of wheat in 1910 with the average yields 
per acre for the ten year period, 1901-1910, are 
given as follows : 



State 



Missouri 

Oklahoma .... 
Washington. . . 
Pennsylvania. . 

Ohio 

Illinois 

North Dakota. 

Nebraska 

Indiana 

South Dakota. 

Kansas 

Minnesota. . . . 



United States. 



5,443,000 



Total Production 


Average per Acre 


1910 


Yield 1901-1910 


(Bushels) 


(Bushels) 


25,130,000 


14.31 


25,363,000 


12.56 


25,603,000 


22.64 


27,697,000 


16.93 


31,493,000 


15.95 


31,500,000 


15.66 


36,105,000* 


12.08 


39,515,000 


17.87 


40,981,000 


15.19 


46,720,000 


12.75 


62,068,000 


13.64 


94,080,000 


13.55 



14.28 



*Drouth cut the North Dakota crop in two in 1910. 

The wheat countries, producing more than 
100,000,000 bushels in 1910 are given in order 
of their total production as follows : 



WHEAT 11 

Bushels Bushels 

Russia 755,695,000 Canada 149,990,000 

United States. . . .695,443,000 Germany 141,884,000 

British India 357,941,000 Spain 137,448,000 

France 268,364,000 Argentina 131,010,000 

Austria Hungary. 255,162,000 Roumania 110,761,000 

Italy 153,337,000 

PRODUCTION OF WINTER AND SPRING WHEAT 

Wheat is most largely grown in cool, temperate 
climates. Its winter growing habit and early 
maturing season make it especially well suited to 
the higher and drier sections of the middle and 
western states. The varieties adapted to fall 
seeding are grown in the warmer wheat sections, 
but there are many spring sorts adapted to the 
colder climates. 

Of the states named, North Dakota, South 
Dakota, Minnesota and Washington grow prin- 
cipally spring wheat. The other states grow 
largely winter wheat. In the United States much 
more winter wheat than spring wheat is grown. 
The production of each in 1911 is given in the 
year book as follows: 

Winter wheat 430,656,000 bushels 

Spring wheat 190,682,000 bushels 



Total 621,338,000 bushels 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE WHEAT CROP OF THE UNITED 
STATES 

The amount of wheat exported by the United 
States has decreased rapidly during the last ten 
years, even while our production was increasing. 
This is due to the great increase in population. 
The distribution and consumption of wheat in 



12 WHEAT 

the United States for the past fifteen years is 
shown in Table I. If the present rate of increase 
in the home consumption of wheat continues our 
surplus for export will be wiped out in six years, 
and the United States will become an importer 
of wheat and flour rather than an exporter. 

WHEAT PRODUCTION IN CANADA 

In 1912, Canada produced 199,236,000 bushels 
of wheat on 9,758,400 acres or an average yield 
of 20.42 bushels per acre. A somewhat larger 
crop was reported for 1911, viz., 215,918,000 
bushels. Most of this wheat was grown in the 
western provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and 
Alberta. The total production of these three 
provinces is placed at 183,322,000 bushels in 
1912 and 194,083,000 bushels in 1911. The 
acreage and production of each province in 1912 
are given as follows:* 



Province 

Manitoba 

Saskatchewan . . 


Acres 
2,653,100 
4,891,500 
1,417,200 

8,961,800 


Total Crop 

Bushels 

58,899,000 

93,849,000 


Alberta . 


30,574,000 






Total 


183,322,000 



The total acreage grown in the three provinces 
in 1911 was reported as 9,301,293 bushels. 

The wheat acreage of Canada has doubled in 
five years, and the average yield per acre has also 
increased, exceeding the average acre-yield in the 
United States by more than five bushels per acre 



*Total yield for Canada 1913, 210,998,800 bushels. 



WHEAT 



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14 WHEAT 

in 1911 and 1912. This increased acre-yield is 
due in part to favorable seasons and also to the 
practice of better culture methods and to the 
planting of adapted, early-maturing varieties. 

There has been an unprecedented development 
of the Canadian northwest since 1903. If this 
rate of development continues for the next ten 
years, Canada will rank with Russia and the 
United States as one of the three greatest wheat 
producing countries of the world. It is estimated 
that there are in the three western provinces 
about 180,000,000 acres available for cultivation, 
the greater part of which is adapted to wheat 
growing. Of this area, not more than 6% is at 
present under cultivation. There is enough good 
wheat land in the western provinces alone when 
this land is brought under cultivation, to produce 
two billion bushels of wheat annually, and allow 
one-third of the land to lie fallow each year. To 
the north of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the 
territories of Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava and 
Yukon lies an immense area of more than 900,000,- 
000 acres, some of which will eventually be cul- 
tivated in wheat, as shown by the fact that wheat 
has already been successfully grown at several 
points within this region. 



WHEAT 15 

Chapter II 
HABITS AND TYPES 

BOTANICAL RELATIONS 

Wheat belongs to the family of true grasses 
(Gramineae). The grass family is a large and 
very important one because of the great number 
of species that supply both grain and hay. They 
include all the standard varieties of small grains, 
corn, grain-sorghums and all grasses used for 
hay and fodder. The cultivated grains and grasses 
furnish the staple foods for man and beast the 
world over. 

HABITS AND STRUCTURE OF PLANT 

The leaves of wheat are slender and ribbon-like 
and attached to the stem at the nodes in the form 
of a sheath covering the internodes. The stems 
are round and usually hollow; height, three to 
five feet. You have noticed the mass of leaves 
clustered close to the ground when the plants are 
young and observed how quickly they are carried 
up off the ground when the wheat begins to stem 
or ''boot.'' Fall sown grains produce only leaves 
until early spring, then the plant stems lengthen, 
not only by growing at the tip but the internodes 
grow in length also. When a field of grain is 
blown down or lodged, it may ''straighten up'' 
due to the fact that the cells on the under side 
of the stem increase and grow faster than the 
cells on the upper side. Also, renewed growth 
occurs at the nodes to strengthen the stem. 



16 WHEAT 

FLOWER AND FRUIT 

Wheat flowers have pistils and stamens but no 
colored showy parts. The stamens and pistils 
are protected by greatly shortened leaves called 
glumes or palea. Short spikelets containing one 
to three small flowers are closely attached to the 
fruiting stem (rachis) and form a close compact 
head or spike. It has been found that the anthers 
shed their pollen and the stigmas become moist 
before the flowers open, and are thus normally 
close fertilized. There is probably little or no 
natural crossing in wheat. Hays found that wheat 
flowers open and close in the early morning, the 
operation consuming only twenty to forty min- 
utes.* 

GERMINATION AND ROOTS 

When the seed sprouts, the shoot grows upwards 
and forms a second growth of roots that are per- 
manent, the flrst set eventually dying. The 
length of the first shoot varies according to the 
depth of soil covering. If the seed is covered 
deeply it will grow to within one to two inches of 
the surface before forming the permanent roots. 
Too deep planting may therefore weaken the plant 
and reduce the growth and yield. The root system 
of wheat and all other cereals and grasses consists 
of slender, much-branched rootlets. There is no 
a tap root. 



^Minnesota Experiment Station Bulletin No. 62. 



WHEAT 17 



STOOLING 



In wheat and nearly all cereals and grasses more 
than one stem is formed from each seedling. This 
is called stooling or tillering. It is a characteristic 
to be encouraged in small grains. It is due to 
the branching of the stem below the ground just 
after the permanent roots are formed. Each 
branch soon forms its own roots. Cool, damp 
weather during the early growth of the grain 
favors stooling, as does also a fertile soil. Furrow 
planting (listing) of small grains seems to favor 
stooling, but in the case of corn it appears to 
retard the tendency to "sucker." Thick seeding 
checks the vigor of individual plants and reduces 
stooling. However the thickly planted grain may 
mature earlier and more evenly, and may make 
larger yields. The character of soil, the moisture 
supply, temperature and altitude affect the stool- 
ing habit, the cooler drier climates being favor- 
able. The amount of seed sown per acre varies. 
Thin seeding gives hardier, stronger plants, larger 
stools with stronger and deeper feeding roots, and 
is preferred in dry climates and for the less fertile 
soils. 

THE GRAIN 

The wheat grain is a dry, indehiscent fruit 
which has the pod and a single seed incorporated 
in one body. Such a fruit is called a caryopsis. 
The grain is about two and a half times as long 
as it is broad, with a hairy apex, oval in shape but 
slightly compressed laterally, with a furrow or 
groove on the side opposite the embryo caused by 

2 




01 o 



WHEAT 19 

a deep infolding of the pericarp or bran. The 
physical parts of the wheat grain and their average 
proportions are as follows : 

Seed covering or bran 5.0% 

Aleurone layer enclosing endosperm and embryo 3.5% 

Embryo 6-.5% 

Endosperm or main portion of grain 84.0% 

The endorsperm is the portion from which the 
flour is made. It is made up largely of starch 
cells but contains also about 8 to 10% of gluten. 

The aleurone layer is composed of a single row 
of large cells known as aleurone or gluten cells, 
but this part is not included in the flour. 

The bran is made up of six layers of cells, the 
three outer layers being the pod or pericarp, and 
the inner layers the coverings of the ovule or 
seed proper. 

The embryo may be divided into the vegetative 
portion which contains the miniature first leaves 
and roots of the new plant, and the scutellum or 
absorbent organ which at germination dissolves 
the substance of the endosperm and transfers 
it to the vegetative portion. The embryo con- 
tains a high percentage of ash, about 16% of fat, 
33% of protein and considerable quantities of 
carbohydrates, mainly sugar. 

VARIATION IN SIZE 

Bessey estimates the cubic content of a wheat 
grain to be twenty to thirty cubic millimeters. 
Richardson found an average of 12,000 grains 
in a pound of wheat. There were variations of 
8,000 to 24,000 grains to the pound. Thus one 
bushel of seed in one case would be equivalent 



20 WHEAT 

to three bushels in the other, so far as individual 
grains are concerned. The standard (and gen- 
erally legal) weight per bushel (2,150.42 cu. in.) 
of wheat is sixty pounds. The measured bushel 
may vary in weight from fifty to sixty-five pounds. 
The color of the grain varies from light yellow 
to dark red. Hardness of grain and high nitrogen 
content are usually associated with a deep red or 
clear amber color. 

SPECIES AND VARIETIES 

There are seven or eight different species or 
sub-species of wheat. Only one of these types is 
generally grown in the United States. This is 
the common milling wheat of the world, the 
botanical name of which is Triticum sativum 
vulgare. It includes practically all of the winter 
wheat and most of the spring wheat grown in 
this country. The species Triticum sativum 
durum, commonly called durum wheat or maca- 
roni wheat, which is used largely in the manu- 
facture of macaroni, also succeeds well as a 
spring wheat in the drier portions of the Dakotas, 
Nebraska and Kansas. 

There are several divisions of the species 
Triticum sativum vulgare such as the hard and 
soft wheat; and either of these may be divided 
into several groups as red hard wheat, white hard 
wheat, red soft wheat and white soft wheat. 
Furthermore, there are bearded and beardless 
types of each of these groups, and while some 
varieties have smooth chaff others have a rough 
or velvety chaff. There are red chaff and white 



WHEAT 21 

chaff varieties also. The varietal names number 
into the hundreds, and often there is no marked 
characteristic to distinguish the variety. Carleton 
has tested, studied and described 245 leading 
varieties of wheat out of one thousand or more 
samples secured from all parts of the world.* 

TYPES OR GENERA 

The wheat genus includes five other types as 
follows : 

Einkorn Triticum monococcum 

Spelt Triticum sativum spelta 

Emmer Triticum sativum dicoccum 

Poulard wheat Triticum sativum turgidum 

Polish wheat Triticum polonicum 

These types of wheat were largely cultivated 
in ancient times in eastern Asia, Egypt, Greece 
and Italy. They are usually hardy and drouth- 
resistant, and are grown to a limited extent today 
in dry areas and cold climates but more for feed 
for livestock than for human food. These grains 
produce an inferior type of flour. 

It may be of interest to note here that the 
''Alaska" wheat, much advertised a few years 
ago by promoters as a wheat of wonderful yield- 
ing power, belongs to the Poulard group. It is 
a variety having branching spikes and is also 
called ''Multiple Head Wheat," "Egyptian 
Wheat" and "Wheat of Miracle." Thomas F. 
Hunt in his "Cereals in America," speaks of this 
variety as a "sport having no value." 

♦United States Bulletin No. 24, Division of Vegetable Physi- 
ology. 



22 WHEAT 

THE BEST VARIETIES TO PLANT 

A large number of varieties of winter wheat 
have been tested at the Kansas experiment station 
during the past ten years. Among the better 
producing varieties as shown by these trials are 
Kharkof, Crimean, Turkey Red, Malakoff, 
Ghirka, Theiss, Weisenberg, Defiance, Bearded 
(winter) Fife, Fultz, Fulcaster, Mediterranean, 
Currell and Zimmerman. 

It is important to observe that of the varieties 
named, the Ghirka is the only hard red wheat 
with bald or beardless heads which has proved 
to be a good producer. The last five varieties 
named are of the soft wheat type; the Fultz, 
Fulcaster, and Mediterranean are bearded, the 
other two are beardless. The first nine varieties 
named are the hard red wheat, and all of these but 
the Ghirka are of the bearded Turkey type gen- 
erally grown in Kansas and throughout the 
western winter wheat belt. The adaptation of 
varieties varies for different conditions of soil 
and climate. The reader is referred to his state 
experiment station for information regarding 
best producing varieties for a particular state or 
locality. 

TYPES OF SPRING WHEAT 

The more important types of spring wheat are the 
Fife, Bluestem, Velvet Chaff, Durum and Club 
Head. There are a number of minor varieties 
of each of these types. Fife is a beardless, smooth 
chaff, hard wheat. There are both red and white 



WHEAT 23 

grained varieties. Bluestem is a beardless velvet 
chaff wheat with grain of medium hard quality 
and reddish color. Velvet Chaff is a trade name 
for several varieties of bearded soft wheat. Club 
Head is a soft white wheat with short, stubby, 
very compact heads, usually beardless, with 
smooth chaff. All of the types and varieties 
named above except the Durum wheat, belong 
to the group ''Common Wheat," Triticum sativum 
vulgare. The Club Head is usually classed as a 
sub-species, Triticum compactum. Carleton has 
given the natural groups of wheat and the names 
of all leading varieties adapted for growing in the 
different wheat districts of the world.* 

MILLING VARIETIES 

Two general types of milling wheat are grown 
in the United States, hard wheat and soft wheat. 
The great plains region is particularly adapted 
for growing hard red wheat of excellent quality, 
the best bread making wheat in the world. Nearly 
half of the wheat grown in the United States is 
grown in the north central states west of the 
Mississippi river, viz: Minnesota, Iowa, Mis- 
souri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska 
and Kansas. These states are mainly in the hard 
wheat belt, as are also Oklahoma and Texas. The 
Rocky mountain states also grow some hard wheat. 
Soft wheat is grown in the more humid climates, 
mainly in the north-eastern and north central 



*United States Bulletin No, 24, Division of Vegetable Physi- 
ology. 



24 



WHEAT 



states east of the Mississippi river, and on the 
Pacific coast. The red soft wheat is grown in 
the eastern states, and the white soft wheat is 
grown mainly in Washington, Oregon and Cah- 
fornia. 

HARD AND SOFT WHEAT CHARACTERISTICS 

Hard wheat has a grain of a more or less clear 
amber color. When cut, the texture appears very 
compact and firm. Soft wheat has an opaque 
color, the kernels are usually plumper and lighter 
in weight than hard wheat, and when broken 
the grain presents a white, starchy appearance. 
It usually contains less gluten than a good quality 
of hard wheat, and is deficient in gliadin, the 




Fig. 3. — A field of beardless spring wheat, North Dakota. 



WHEAT 25 

plastic part of gluten which gives the tenacity to 
dough and affects its rising quality. The best 
quality of light bread cannot be made from soft 
wheat flour. Hence, soft wheat flour is used more 
largely for pastries. But a certain proportion of 
soft wheat is used to blend with hard wheat in the 
manufacture of the best patent flour. 

VARY WITH CLIMATE 

The hardness and texture of the grain may vary 
not only in different varieties but with the climate 
and season in which the wheat is grown. Hard 
wheat varieties which characterize dry regions 
become softer when grown in moist climates. 
It becomes necessary therefore, in the more 
humid sections where hard wheat is grown for 
the farmers to change seed wheat every few years, 
securing the new seed from the drier sections 
farther west and north where the best quality 
of hard wheat is produced. Recent experiments 
in breeding wheat indicate that the hard char- 
acter may be maintained in the more humid 
sections by ''head-row" breeding by which pedi- 
greed strains are produced from a single head or 
plant which has retained the character of hardness 
even under the adverse conditions.* 

DURUM OR MACARONI WHEAT 

Durum wheat is a bearded type of wheat of 
which there are several distinct varieties, varying 
in color of chaff, smoothness of glumes, etc., but 

*Bulletin No. 156 Kansas Experiment Station, by Roberts 
& Freeman. 



26 WHEAT 

all having the characteristically hard, flinty grain 
which is particularly adapted to the manufacture 
of macaroni; also flour from this wheat is now 
being used to make bread, which is somewhat 
darker in color than bread from patent flour, but 
it is nutritious and has an agreeable taste and 
some people prefer it to ordinary wheat bread. 
As a spring wheat it is rapidly coming into use in 
the northwestern states. It is more hardy and 
more productive than ordinary spring wheat. 
Brought from the dry, hot steppes of Turkestan 
and southeastern Russia where it has been grown 
for hundreds of years, it is decidedly a dry farm- 
ing crop and it is proving to be hardy and well 
adapted to the severe climate of the northwest. 
It is not so safe a crop and is less productive than 
winter wheat in the middle west and in the south- 
west. Spring wheat is not well adapted for grow- 
ing in Kansas and the states farther south. 

MILLING PRODUCTS 

Wheat is almost exclusively used for the pro- 
duction of flour from which various forms of 
human food are made. Varying with the kinds, 
quality and grade of wheat and the milling pro- 
cesses, the out-turn of mill products are about as 
follows : 

Flour 65 to 80% (usually 70 to 75%) 

Bran 15 to 20%) 

Shorts and middlings. . 5 to 8% 

The by-products of wheat are highly prized as 
food for all classes of livestock, yet within the 
memory of persons now living (1913) the bran 



WHEAT 27 

spout of grist mills emptied its contents into the 
river. 
Flour is usually run in two or more grades: 

1. Patent flour, a clear white grain. 

2. Baker's flour, slightly yellow in color. 

3. Low grade flour, dark, soft grain and lumpy, containing 
particles of bran. 

Graham flour is unbolted wheat meal or the 
whole wheat ground into a meal, nothing being 
removed. Entire wheat flour is wheat meal from 
which the coarsest of the bran has been removed. 

The weight per bushel is a test in part of the 
milling qualities of wheat. ''Heavy" wheat tests 
fifty-nine pounds or more per bushel. The lighter 
wheat gives a larger out-turn of the less valuable 
products, bran and shorts. Common causes of 
light wheat are unadapted seed, lodging, premature 
harvesting, dry hot winds, attacks of insects and 
diseases (smut and rust), sprouting in the shock, 
etc. 

COMPOSITION OF WHEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS 

The value of wheat as a human food is due to its 
palatability and the attractiveness and great 
variety of forms which can be made from it, as 
well as to its abundant supply of nutritious sub- 
stance. The composition of wheat and its pro- 
ducts is given as follows:* 



*Hunt's Cereals of America, page 113. 



28 



WHEAT 



Table II 

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF WHEAT AND ITS 
PRODUCTS 



(PARTS 


IN 100) 








Wheat 


Facent 
Flour 


Bran 


Shorts 


Mid- 
dlings 


Water 


9.07 

1.79 

14.35 

1.68 

70.37 

2.74 
.82 


11.48 
.39 

12.95 
.18 

73.55 

1.45 

.18 


11.9 

5.8 

15.4 

9.0 

53.9 
4.0 
1.22 


11.8 
4.6 

14.9 
7.4 

56.8 
4.5 


12.1 


Ash 


3.3 


Protein (Wx6. 25) 

Crude fiber 


15.6 
4.6 


Nitrogen free extract 
or carbohydrates. . . 

Fat 

Phosphoric acid 


60.4 
4.0 



AMOUNT OF BREAD FROM FLOUR 



The value of flour depends upon the amount 
and quality of bread which it will produce. The 
amount of bread also depends upon the condition 
of baking as regards the amount of water in the 
dough, size of loaves, temperature of oven, etc. 
The United States department of agriculture, 
chemical bulletin No. 4, reports the amount of 
bread baked from different flours handled alike, 
as varying from 129 pounds to 140 pounds from 
each hundred pounds of flour. The flour with the 
least percent of nitrogen produced the smallest 
percent of bread. Each pound of wheat will pro- 
duce about a pound of bread, since the percentage 
of flour in wheat averages about 72%. 



WHEAT 29 

Chapter III 
SEED IMPROVEMENT 

ADAPTATION OF SEED 

Planting good, pure seed of well bred wheat of 
the type or variety best adapted to the local con- 
ditions is one of the most important factors in 
successful wheat culture. It is well for the grower 
to keep in touch with the state experiment stations 
where the varieties are being continually tested 
and improved in order to secure the best seed of 
the best variety for his state or locality. 

The western plains south of the Dakotas is the 
land of the hard red winter wheat, and the Turkey 
or bearded type is generally best adapted for 
growing in this region, but there are different 
varieties or strains, some of which are superior to 
others in quality, hardiness and productiveness. 
The Kharkof (Turkey) wheat has been proved 
to be one of the best producing varieties at the 
Kansas experiment station. 

A MONEY CROP 

Wheat is the great ''money" crop of a large 
part of the dry farming area, yet it is not especially 
a drouth resistant crop. Its success is more 
largely due to the fact that the crop grows and 
matures during a part of the year when drouth and 
hot winds are least apt to prevail. On this account 
also it makes advantageous use of the moisture 
stored in the soil by summer tilling and by 



30 WHEAT 

careful seedbed preparation. It is true that 
western farmers have been depending too much 
upon a single .crop, and continuous wheat cropping 
is rapidly exhausting the soil fertility. The writer 
would not discourage the growing of wheat on 
this account but rather encourage the practice 
of better farming methods, described in these 
pages, by which more wheat of better quality 
shall be produced on fewei- acres without depleting 
the fertility of the soil. 

Farmers throughout the hard winter wheat 
belt are urged to plant hard red winter wheat of 
the Turkey type and to secure seed of an improved 
variety. It will pay to plant well bred seed of the 
best producing varieties, as has been proved by the 
tests at the experiment stations and the actual 
experience of farmers. 

CLEANING AND GRADING 

It is advisable to clean seed grain of all trash 
and very light kernels. Heavy, plump seed ger- 
minates quickly, grows more vigorously, and gives 
greater assurance of a regular stand and a large 
yield. However, carefully graded, shriveled grain 
of a hardy, adapted variety may often be pre- 
ferable for planting to well developed seed brought 
from a different climate. There are many good 
makes of fanning mills and grain graders. The 
writer prefers for general use the ordinary fanning 
mill with proper sieves and screens for removing 
weed seeds and small and broken grains, and which 
allows for a strong blast which will remove the 



WHEAT St 

chaff and dirt and light weight kernels which are 
likely to be deficient in vitality. 

TREATMENT FOR SMUT 

If the seed wheat is infected with smut, it 
should be treated with a solution of formaldehyde 
to destroy the smut spores which adhere to the 
wheat kernels. (See page 96 for full treatment.) 

Treating for smut and careful grading of seed 
may not only increase the yield, but by such a 
practice it is possible to maintain a good variety 
of wheat and improve both the yield and quality 
of grain adapted to the soil and climate. All 
farmers should take these precautions to increase 
their annual yields and to maintain and improve 
their seed wheat, but more rapid and more 
permanent improvement may be secured by 
individual selection of plants and careful breeding. 

WHEAT IMPROVEMENT 

The best varieties of cereals are strains that 
have been continuously and carefully selected 
and thus adapted to the soil conditions and ac- 
climated to the belt in which they are grown. The 
Turkey wheat owes its hardiness and adaptation 
for growing in our western plains region largely 
to the training which it has received on the steppes 
of Russia and Turkestan. The Russian wheat 
introduced into the hard wheat belt of this country 
has a decided advantage over the soft wheat types 
of the eastern states which are not adapted to 
dry climatic conditions. It is doubtful, however. 



32 WHEAT 

if new importations from the old world will give 
any advantage over the best local strains which 
have been developed in our western states from 
the early importations. 

FROM DRY TO MOIST CLIMA.TE 

High yielding varieties of wheat from moist 
climates generally give lower yields in dry climates 
than acclimated or native sorts, and vice versa, 
when the conditions are extreme. The quality 
of hard wheat in the more humid sections of the 
hard wheat belt is improved by planting seed 
grown under drier climatic conditions, and if the 
change in climate or soil is not too great, the yield 
may not be decreased. Such changes of seed from 
a dry section to a moister climate should be made 
along the same latitude or from the north rather 
than from the south because of the later maturing 
ing season of the southern grown seed. Also in 
changing seed, care should be taken to secure 
strains of the best producing varieties because of 
the greater inherent tendency of pure strains to 
produce well, even under changed climatic 
conditions. 

HEAD-ROW METHOD OF BREEDING 

The more valuable new varieties of cereals that 
are now being introduced have resulted from the 
careful multiplication of seed from selected in- 
dividual plants. In the improvement of small 
grain, these plants are selected by a process of 
testing and elimination known as the ''head-row" 





Fig. 4. — Head-row breeding, Kansas Experiment Station, Note 
3 difference in head-rows. 



34 WHEAT 

method of breeding, similar to the "ear-row'' 
method of breeding corn. A large number of the 
choicer heads of a high yielding, well-adapted 
variety are selected from the field. Many of these 
heads which are inferior in points of structure, 
yield and quality, may be discarded, but the grain 
from the better heads is saved and planted in 
individual rows in the breeding plot. The growth 
of the plants, hardiness, yield and quality of the 
grain produced by each head is thus determined 
and the seed from the best yielding ''head-rows" 
may be used to plant ''increase rows" on the next 
year "increase plots" and so on until enough seed 
is secured to plant a large field with the new or 
pedigreed strain. 

This may be accomplished in a relatively short 
period of time. In the experience of the writer, 
the seed from a single head of wheat containing 
thirty kernels planted in the breeding row has 
produced a pound of good seed for planting the 
second season. If this pound of wheat be planted, 
and its product planted the next year and so on, 
multiplying at the rate of thirty-fold each year, 
it will produce thirty pounds of wheat the first 
year, fifteen bushels the second year, and 450 
bushels the third year, or enough grain to plant 
400 to 500 acres. Thus a single head of wheat 
planted in 1913, and its product planted each suc- 
ceeding year, may produce enough seed in 1916 
to plant several hundred acres of the pedigreed 
strain. 



WHEAT 35 

WORK OF THE EXPERIMENT STATION 

Pedigreed, pure bred strains of wheat or other 
crops are apt to be more or less locally adapted, 
hence local breeding centers are necessary in 
order to produce or secure locally adapted, high 
yielding varieties. The average grain grower 
may not take the time to make "head-row" tests 
to improve his seed grain but this work should be 
carried on at the experiment stations and the 
pedigreed seed increased and distributed to the 
farmers, who should grow it separately and keep 
it pure and sell the crop for seed to their neighbors, 
thus rapidly increasing and distributing the im- 
proved seed throughout the community and 
throughout the state. 

This method of improving our cereal grains 
depends simply on discovering the great individ- 
uals which are present in every well-adapted 
variety, and making them the progenitors of a 
new or superior strain of that variety. Its practice 
and application are giving remarkable results. 
It is particularly valuable for securing rapid im- 
provement in dry farming crops. The old method 
of adapting crops to the dry farming conditions 
by natural selection was too slow because the 
field-elimination process allowed many of the 
weaker plants to persist and bear seed each year. 
The new method discovers the few hardy in- 
dividuals at once and eliminates the weaker types 
so that the increase may be only from the hardy, 
high-producing type. 



36 WHEAT 

MAINTAIN PURITY AND QUALITY OF IMPROVED 
SEED 

Farmers who are growing improved wheat 
should take great care to keep the seed wheat 
pm^e in order to continue the distribution of the 
good seed and to maintain the yield and quality 
of the grain grown on their own farms. One of 
the principal factors which causes deterioration 
in wheat is the crossing or mixing of different 
varieties or strains. Common sources of mixing 
are from volunteer wheat which occurs when 
fields are reseeded to wheat year after year; or 
mixing may occur in the harvesting or threshing 
where two or more varieties are gi^own on the 
same farm or on neighboring farms. Careless 
seedsmen and dealers also often allow the varieties 
to become mixed in grading and handling, so that 
under present conditions it is quite difficult to 
maintain purity in seed grain. 

COMMUNITY SEED 

The breeding and introduction of pedigreed 
strains will eventually lead to the establishment 
and growing of one of the best producing, pure 
bred varieties of each cereal grain in each com- 
munity or in each locality or section with distinct 
climatic or soil conditions. Thus there may be 
established a ''community seed" which will be 
planted by all the farmers in that community. 
This will be a great advantage over the present 
practice of growing many varieties, some of which 
are often poorly adapted to the local conditions. 



WHEAT 



37 



Because of the mixture of types and varieties and 
because of the want of uniformity in type and 
quahty, all of the grain sells on the market at a 
relatively low price, fixed by the average quality 
of the crop rather than by the best grain which the 
locality produces. The general planting of a 
''community seed" would reverse these conditions 
and would result in larger yields and better prices 
and a greater prosperity for every farmer. The 
farmers in each community should get together 
and organize and adopt a ''community seed." 




Fig, 5. — Roots of spring wheat grown under semi-arid con- 
ditions at Edgeley, North Dakota. Length of roots, four feet. 



38 WHEAT 

Chapter IV 
SOIL, CLIMATE AND CULTIVATION 

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 

Most of the wheat of the world grows in regions 
with cold winters. California, Egypt and India 
are exceptions. On the whole, however, wheat 
has a very wide climatic range. It. is grown suc- 
cessfully in northern Russia and in the Canadian 
northwest, and has matured even as far north as 
Dawson, Alaska, 65° north latitude, about 
two hundred miles from the Arctic circle. In 
the direction of the equator we find the limits of 
successful wheat culture between 20 and 25° 
north and south latitude. Wheat, however, is 
grown successfully on the mountain plains of 
Columbia and Ecuador, at the equator 10,000 
feet above sea level. 

While wheat has a very wide geographical 
range, it nevertheless demands a similar climatic 
condition during its growing season, viz: A 
moderately cool and dry temperature. This is 
secured in the culture of the crop by the use of 
winter and spring varieties, and by regulating 
the time of seeding so that the period of growth 
and maturity shall occur during the cooler part 
of the growing season in the warmer climates. 

SOIL REQUIREMENTS 

Generally speaking, wheat requires a rather 
heavy soil, inclining to clayey. The lighter or 
sandy soils are not so well adapted for growing 



WHEAT 39 

wheat, however soft wheat succeeds well on 
bottom lands of a loamy, light texture. 

To produce the best quality of hard wheat 
requires fertile soil, land well supplied with nitro- 
gen and rich in the mineral elements of plant food. 
The soil should be well balanced in fertihty. If 
there is an over-supply of nitrogen caused by 
heavy manuring or by growing alfalfa or clover, 
there is likely to be a rank growth of straw which 
may lodge and the heads fail to fill, resulting in 
light, shrunken grain. 

A fertile soil which is well supplied with organic 
matter and humus will produce a much larger 
yield of wheat under similar conditions of culture 
and rainfall than a less fertile soil or one lacking 
in vegetable matter. The humus will take in 
and hold more water, the organic matter acting 
as a sponge to absorb and retain the moisture. 
Also the fertile soil will supply a stronger solution 
of plant food, thus producing a greater growth 
with the same amount of water than an infertile 
soil. Thus the fertilized soil has the advantage 
in two ways: first, it absorbs and holds more 
moisture and supplies it to the growing crop; 
second, it makes better use of the soil water, the 
plant requiring often 50% less water because of 
its stronger solution of plant food than the soil 
low in fertility and lacking in organic matter. 

Therefore, it is necessary to rotate crops, grow 
legumes and use manure and fertilizers to main- 
tain and increase soil fertility, also to conserve soil 
moisture by proper culture methods in order to 
secure the largest yields of wheat. Moreover, 



40 



WHEAT 



special care must be given to preparing the seed 
and root bed in order to secure the proper soil 
conditions and suitable environment in the soil 
for germinating the seed and feeding the young 
plants. 

THE SEED BED 

The proper starting of a crop is an important 
factor in its production. A germinating seed 
requires the presence of moisture and air and a 




Fig. 6.- A good seed-bed. A cross-sectioii ui m^ plowed por- 
tion of a properly prepared seed-bed. The soil is mellow but 
well settled,, the furrow slice making a good connection with the 
subsoil. 



WHEAT 41 

favorable degree of heat. The plantlet is nour- 
ished at first by the food substance stored in the 
mother seed, but this is soon used up and the 
Httle roots quickly spread out in the prepared 
soil to gather the moisture and available plant 
food which may be found there. The young plant 
grows and is soon well established if the soil is 
fertile and the seed bed has been well prepared. 

HOW PLANT FOOD IS MADE AVAILABLE 

All fertile soils contain an abundant supply of 
plant food elements, but the compounds in which 
they exist are usually in an insoluble condition in 
the soil, a provision of nature which prevents the 
wasting of plant food, insures the permanency of 
soil fertility and the continued productiveness of 
the soil for ages, providing man does his part. 

The plant food of the soil is gradually liberated 
by the action of weathering agents which cause 
the rock particles to break down and disintegrate, 
and is made available by the action of the soil 
bacteria which assist in the processes of decay. 
Thus chemical changes take place by which the 
insoluble plant food is gradually changed into 
soluble compounds, the elements of which become 
available to the plants when absorbed by the 
roots. 

This ''digestion" of the plant food in the soil 
by which it is made available to plants, at least 
so far as bacteria are concerned, is favored by the 
same conditions which are essential for the 
germination of seeds and the growth of plants, viz., 
the soil must be warm, moist and well aerated. 



42 



WHEAT 



PROPER PHYSICAL CONDITION 

The fertility of the soil is developed by proper 
tillage. The physical condition of the soil is 
nearly always more important than mere ''rich- 
ness." A finely divided, mellow soil is more pro- 
ductive than a hard, lumpy one of the same chemi- 
cal composition because it retains more moisture, 
renders plant food more available and affords 
a more congenial and comfortable place in which 
the plants may grow. 








Fig. 7. — A cloddy seed-bed, plowed too dry, resulting in a very 
unfavorable condition. 



WHEAT 



43 



.M/ 






Fig. 8. — A. two-row lister with eie^ht horses listing from eight 
to nine inches deep, Hays, Kas., Experiment Station. 



The seed bed for wheat and other small grains 
should be mellow at the surface, but firm and well 
settled below the depth at which the seed is 
planted. This provides the best conditions for 
supplying the moisture, air, and heat to the ger- 
minating seed and young plants. Deep plowing or 
deep listing should be encouraged, but it should 
be timely so that the soil may settle and fill with 
moisture; and such cultivation should be given 
after plowing or listing to secure a favorable phys- 
ical condition of the seed bed. 

Plowing the land early, well in advance of 
seeding is essential, especially in the dry farming 
areas of the western plains. Early plowing com- 
pared with late plowing has given largely in- 
creased yields at the Oklahoma, Kansas and 
Nebraska experiment stations. (See Tables III 
and IV.) 



44 



WHEAT 



FIRMING THE SEED BED 

When land is allowed to lie for a considerable 
period after plowing before the crop is planted, 
the action of the rains and the necessary surface 
cultivation usually pack and firm the soil to a 
sufficient extent to make a good seed bed. The 
use of the subsurface packer is most essential 
on late spring plowing, when the purpose is to 
plant at once after plowing. For sowing fall 
wheat, the subsurface packer may be used to 
advantage, if the plowing precedes the sowing by 
a short interval. By setting the disks rather 
straight and weighting the harrow, a disk harrow 
may be used as a substitute for the subsurface 
packer. 

MAINTAIN SOIL MULCH— DESTROY WEEDS 

It is essential that sufficient and proper cultiva- 
tion be given to destroy weeds. This is more 




Fig. 9. — The Campbell subsurface packer. 



WHEAT 45 

important than to maintain a soil mulch, since 
weeds exhaust both the soil moisture and available 
plant food. If a proper soil mulch is maintained, 
however, the weeds will be kept in subjection. 

It is advisable to weight or ride the common 
harrow in order to cause it to stir the soil to a 
sufficient depth and prevent the slicking effect 
which is apt to result from light harrowing. A 
smooth, finely pulverized surface produced by 
continuous, light harrowing defeats the purpose 
of the cultivation, since soil in such a condition 
will shed heavy rains, causing a waste of the 
water that should have been stored in the soil. 
By rendering the surface too fine and compact an 
unfavorable seed bed is produced and the proper 
aeration of the soil is prevented. Thus during 
the interval between crops it is often advisable 
to use the lister or disk harrow in order to keep 
the surface of the soil open and mellow. 

CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

In the more humid climates it is often necessary 
to artificially drain the land in order to keep the 
soil in proper physical condition and cause it to 
produce profitable crops, but throughout the 
great plains region the conservation of the soil 
moisture is the first and most important problem 
in successful farming. 

The most essential part of soil moisture con- 
servation, the most important factor in dry farm- 
ing and the one which has been most greatly 
neglected by our western farmers, is getting the 
rain water into the ground and safely storing it 



46 WHEAT 

in the subsoil to be used by the growing crop. The 
firming and pulverizing of the soil to restore 
capillarity, and the proper cultivation to maintain 
the soil mulch are each without avail, unless there 
has been stored in the deeper soil a sufficient 
amount of moisture to supply the growing crop 
in times of drouth. 

SOIL MULCH 

The plan of producing a soil mulch to conserve 
the moisture has been taught and more or less 
successfully practiced for many years; but in 
very dry years this method must fail because there 
is no moisture stored in the soil to be conserved by 
cultivation. 

The moisture should be caught and stored at 
all times of the year, but especially during the 




g 



F^"i #ff^P^ 




Fig. 10. — Following the binder with a disk harrow to catch 
and conserve moisture. 



WHEAT 47 

interval between harvesting and planting. The 
plan should be, in the preparation of the seed bed, 
to put the soil in the most favorable condition 
to receive the rain and carry it downward into 
the subsoil. This is provided by disking soon 
after harvest or late in the fall, or early in the 
spring. Deep plowing a long time before planting 
leaves the soil mellow and rough, enlarges the 
water reservoir, and favors the absorption of heavy 
rains. But the best plan to store moisture, as 
determined in part by experiments conducted 
by the writer and the experience of a number of 
western farmers, is the method of listing the soil 
in deep furrows and high ridges soon after harvest 
or in the fall after the crops of corn or kafir have 
been cut and removed. If this work cannot be 
accomplished in the fall, winter listing or early 
spring listing is desirable on such lands as shall 
again be planted to intertilled crops or which may 
be summer fallowed in preparation for fall wheat. 

THE LISTING METHOD FOR WHEAT SEED BED 

In preparing the land for winter wheat list 
the ground with the ordinary corn lister as soon 
after harvest as possible. The listed furrows 
are run about three and one-half feet apart, 
very much the same as when the lister is used 
for planting corn. Later, when the weeds have 
started, the soil is worked back into the listed 
furrows by means of the harrow or disk cultivator. 
Several cultivations are usually required with a 
spike tooth harrow or disk in order to level the 
field and bring it into good seed bed condition. 



48 



WHEAT 




Fig. 11. — Disk lister cultivator used for filling listed furrows. 



Once over with the disk cultivator is sufficient 
to fill the furrows, the further work necessary to 
prepare the seed bed being given with a common 
harrow. 

In preparing the ground for spring wheat, the 
listing should be done soon after harvest and the 
soil worked back into the furrows again before 
the ground freezes. Thus it may settle and firm 
up during the winter, when by harrowing or 
shallow disking in the spring the seed bed may be 
put into favorable condition for planting. On 
land which is inclined to drift in heavy winds it 
is better not to level the ridges until spring as 
the furrowed soil will resist blowing. 



WHEAT 49 

ADVANTAGE OF LISTING METHOD 

In a dry climate this method of preparing the 
seed bed for wheat has several advantages. The 
cultivation of the land soon after harvest tends 
to conserve the moisture already in the soil, 
the furrows catch and store the rain and the later 
cultivation clears the land of weeds and volunteer 
wheat and leaves a mellow soil mulch to conserve 
the moisture which has been stored in the subsoil. 
The early and continuous cultivation of the soil 
favors the action of the soil bacteria and the 
development of available plant food. Also, 
because of the furrowed surface, a larger volume 
of soil is exposed to the action of bacteria. 

By pursuing this method the farmer may cul- 
tivate a larger area when the soil is in good con- 
dition to cultivate, since listing is done more 
rapidly than plowing. Soil which is opened out 
in listed furrows is in the best possible condition 
to catch and store the rain, which as it falls soon 
reaches the bottom of the furrow and is rapidly 
absorbed directly into the subsoil without having 
to pass through six or eight inches of finely 
pulverized compact surface soil. Also the ridges 
may be cultivated soon after a heavy rain, thus 
covering the wet furrows with mellow soil and 
"sealing" the reservoir and preventing the escape 
of the stored moisture. 

SUMMER TILLING 

The listing method is also adapted to summer 
fallowing (summer tilling), the plan being to keep 
the surface furrowed and in a mellow condition 

4 



50 WHEAT 

to receive and store as much of the rain as 
possible in the fall, winter and early spring. 
Later in the summer, the land may be leveled, 
plowed and worked back into a firm, well pul- 
verized seed bed, suitable for sowing winter wheat. 
In preparing a fallow for seeding spring wheat, 
the furrowed condition should be continued 
until late summer or early fall. The listing method 




Fig. 12. — Late fall cultivation of summer fallow with twelve 
shovel, two-row corn cultivator to conserve moisture and pre- 
vent drifting. 



WHEAT 



51 



is best adapted to fairly level land but it may be 
used successfully on a sloping field by running 
the furrows across the slope. Or in the case of 
a field sloping in different directions, it is possible 
to practice ''contour" listing, viz., listing around 
the hill, making the furrows always at right 
angles with the slope. Thus the rain which falls 
on the field will be caught in the furrows and led 
straight downward into the soil, rather than down 
the slope by surface drainage. 

Experiments in preparing the seed bed for 
winter wheat, when wheat was grown each season, 
compared with late plowing, early plowing, early 
listing and summer fallowing, were carried on for 
six consecutive years (1908 to 1912) at the Hays 
branch experiment station in western Kansas. 
The crop of 1909 was entirely destroyed by hail. 
The average yield of five crops by the several 
methods is given in the following table. 

Table III 

Giving yield of w^heat for five years, 1906 to 
1912, and percentage of moisture in soil at seeding 
time for 1911 and 1912, Fort Hays branch experi- 
ment station, western Kansas. 





Yield 




Moisture 


Average 


Method of Prepara- 


per Acre 


Average 


in 6 Feet 


Differ- 


tion 


Total in 


Yield 


of Soil at 


ence in 




Five 




Seeding 


Yield 




Years 




Time 






Bushels 


Bushels 


Percent 


Bushels 


Late plowed, Sept. . . . 


59.9 


12.0 


13.7 


—4.7* 


Early plowed, July. . . 


83.3 


16.7 


15.6 


check 


Early listed, July 


104.4 


20.9 


16.4 


4.2 


Summer fallowed .... 


58.9 


11.8 


19.8 


—4.9* 



*Decrease in yield. 



52 WHEAT 

The land prepared by the listing method 
yielded 21.1 bushels more wheat per acre in the 
five years than the land which was plowed early 
and otherwise given approved treatment. Late 
plowing yielded 23.4 bushels less than early plow- 
ing and 44.5 bushels less than early listing. The 
fallowed area (cropped alternate years) gave 24.4 
bushels less grain per acre in five years than con- 
tinuous cropping with early plowing, and 45.5 
bushels less than continuous cropping with early 
listing. These results are not favorable to alter- 
nate summer fallowing, and indicate that a less 
frequent fallow would pay better. 

In Table IV are compared the yields secured 
at the Oklahoma experiment station by plowing 
at different dates in preparing the seed bed for 
fall wheat. 

Table IV 

Date of plowing test in preparing seed bed for 
wheat, Oklahoma experiment station (Bulletin 
No. 65). 

Preparation Date of Plowing Yield per Acre 

Early July 19 31.3 bushels 

Medium Aug. 15 28.5. bushels 

Late Sept. 11 15.3 bushels 

THE SUMMER FALLOW 

In regions where the rainfall is not sufficient 
to produce a paying crop each year by continuous 
cropping, the system of summer fallowing with 
''summer tillage" (keeping the soil mellow and 
free from weeds) should be practiced every three 



WHEAT 53 

or four years or in alternate years, if this is neces- 
sary, in order to store a sufficient supply of mois- 
ture in the soil to insure a profitable crop when 
wheat is planted. The cultivation of the fallow 
not only conserves the soil moisture and clears 
the land of weeds but also favors the development 
of the fertility of the soil, so that a larger amount 
of plant food may become available to the crop 
following the fallow. 

METHODS OF FALLOWING 

There are several methods of summer fallowing 
practiced in the several states, but the method 
which has given uniformly good results at the 
Montana, Nebraska and Kansas experiment sta- 
tions is to plow deep, six to eight inches, rather 
late in the spring, and then give sufficient cultiva- 





Fig. 13. — Listing the soil to prevent drifting and to conserve 
moisture on summer tilled land. 



54 



WHEAT 




Fig. 14. 



-Soil that has been listed in the best possible condition 
to catch the rainfall. 



tion thereafter to maintain a soil mulch and de- 
stroy weeds. Such treatment puts the soil in 
ideal condition for seeding in the fall or spring, 
but the continuous cultivation leaves the surface 
soil finely pulverized and smooth, which favors 
soil washing with heavy rains and soil drifting 
in strong winds. Some practice plowing twice, 
rather shallow in the spring and deeper the second 
time about midsummer, giving surface cultiva- 
tion after the second plowing sufficient to prepare 
a good seed bed. 

Summer tillage may exhaust the plant food 
of the soil faster than continuous cropping, since 



WHEAT 55 

there is apt to be a waste of the soluble plant food 
elements by wind and drainage. On account of 
these facts summer tillage should not be generally 
practiced except in regions of very light rainfall 
and in the western plains region, which is sub- 
ject to very strong winds, only in the heavier 
soils or more protected locations. 

The listing method of summer fallowing has 
not yet been tested in comparative trials at the 
experiment stations, but wherever there is danger 
of damage by soil drifting, the listing method, 
as described above, should be preferred to plow- 
ing and harrowing. 

TO PREVENT SOIL DRIFTING 

How to prevent soil drifting has become a very 
serious problem to the western farmer during the 
last few years. The breaking of the prairie sod, 
the pulverizing of the soil by tillage, the dry 
seasons, and continuous cropping have made the 
surface soil finer and looser, which conditions 
favor soil blowing in the heavy winds which are 
characteristic of the western plains. 

The rotation of crops and seeding a part of the 
land again to grass, together with the planting 
of shelter belts and wind breaks, will be some of the 
permanent means employed to solve this problem. 
Meanwhile it is possible to temporarily prevent 
soil drifting by practicing proper culture methods 
and by protecting the surface with a dressing of 
straw or manure pressed into the soil with a 
packer or a disk harrow. 



56 WHEAT 

SPREADING STRAW AND PACKING 

The writer prevented the soil from blowing on 
an eighty acre wheat field at the Fort Hays experi- 
ment station in western Kansas in the spring of 
1911, by spreading straw over the field during the 
winter and packing it into the soil early in the 
spring with a subsurface packer. The packer 
pressed the straw into the ground causing it to 
stand partly on end. This kept the straw from 
blowing away and served as a protection to the 
ground, which entirely prevented the soil from 
drifting on this field in the very severe wind storm 
of March 26 of that year, notwithstanding the 
fact that this field was not well covered by the 
growing wheat which had made little growth in 
the fall and was therefore inclined to blow. Other 
fields on the experiment station farm which were 
not protected with straw did blow badly. 

During the storm referred to, the effect of the 
straw as a barrier to stop the drifting soil was 
shown in another field of 160 acres of wheat. In 
this field, straw had been spread in a narrow strip 
five or six rods wide, extending east and west 
across the field, and had been packed into the 
soil with the subsurface packer. The north side 
of the field started to blow and the loose soil 
was swept south, taking nearly the whole field 
north of the straw-covered area, but here the 
drifting soil lodged in the straw and did little harm 
to the wheat south of this barrier. The subsurface 
packing alone without the dressing of straw cross- 
wise of the drill rows early in the spring also had 



WHEAT 57 




Fig. 15. — ^The Dunham sub-surface packer. 

a beneficial effect and aided in preventing soil 
drifting. 

SHALLOW FURROW CULTIVATION 

On the same farm in the spring of 1912, I 
stopped the soil from drifting on a newly seeded 
alfalfa field 120 acres in area, by cultivating the 
drifting area with a twelve shovel two-row corn 
cultivator, cultivating across the wind, beginning 
on the side towards the wind. The drifting was 
stopped early in the day, with a loss of about 
seven acres of alfalfa, whereas if nothing had been 
done to check it, the drifting would have extended 
over the larger part of the field during the day. 
The middle shovel of each gang of three in the 
cultivator was removed. This left the soil in 
furrows and ridges. 

By the same method I have protected the sur- 
face of a bare summer fallow by running shallow 
furrows east and west across the field. One 
hundred-eighty acres cultivated in this way late 
in the fall of 1911 did not drift during the winter 
and was put into good condition for seeding 
alfalfa the next spring by a single cross harrowing. 
The shallow furrows did not loosen the seed bed 
too deeply. 



58 



WHEAT 



DEEP FURROWS WITH LISTER 

The best culture method to prevent soil drifting 
on open, bare fields is to list the soil into deep 
furrows and high ridges, preferably running east 
and west, with the lister or double mold-board 
plow. This condition offers almost complete 
protection from soil drifting. The soil should be 
listed when it is not too dry and loose. Even 
when the soil is drifting on a field, it may be 
stopped by listing, unless it is very loose and 
sandy, by starting the lister on the side towards 
the wind. In the fall of 1911, nearly 600 acres 
were listed on the Hays experiment station farm, 
including all corn and kafir stubble fields and all 
land which was to be summer fallowed or planted 
to intertilled crops in 1911. The results were so 
favorable that the same plan was continued in 
the fall of 1912. 




Fig. 16. — Shallow furrows do not loosen the seed-bed too 
deeply. 



WHEAT 59 

Chapter V 

WHEAT SEEDING AND CULTIVATION 

Spring wheat should be sown as early in the 
spring as the soil can be put into favorable seed 
bed condition. It is preferable to risk damage by 
spring frosts in order to start the wheat early and 
thus hasten its maturing, in order that the crop 
may escape rust and unfavorable weather con- 
ditions which are likely to damage the grain 
near harvest time. 

It is difficult to name any best date for sowing 
fall wheat, because this will vary greatly for 
different sections of the country, and in different 
seasons even in the same locality. In the more 
northern areas of the winter wheat belt early 
seeding is usually desirable in order that the wheat 
may make a good start and a good cover in the 
fall, to afford winter protection. In the warmer 
climates rather late seeding is often preferred 
because a too rank growth from early seeding is 
more apt to smother during the winter. Also the 
early seedings are liable to attack by the Hessian 
fly which appears early in the fall and lays its 
eggs on the early sown wheat. When it is neces- 
sary to sow rather late, special care should be 
taken to have the seed bed in ideal condition to 
start the wheat quickly, since young, weak plants 
are more likely to winter kill, and the lack of 
cover exposes the crop to damage by wind and 
drifting soil. 



60 WHEAT 



METHODS OF SEEDING 



When possible always sow wheat with a good 
drill. Drilling requires less seed than broadcasting 
because the seeds are more evenly distributed 
and more evenly covered, thus giving a more 
uniform germination. Drilled wheat is less likely 
to winter-kill because of the stronger plants, and 
there is a slight protection afforded by the shallow 
furrows. Many comparative tests at several 
experiment stations have given increased yields 
from drilling from two to ten bushels per acre. 

In the spring wheat states, wheat follows corn 
with good results when the seed bed may be well 
and cheaply prepared simply by disking and har- 
rowing. Winter wheat may follow early potatoes, 
or other early maturing intertilled crops which 
have been well cultivated, without plowing. Also, 
it is common practice in Kansas and states farther 
south to drill wheat with a one-horse drill in 
standing corn. 

When wheat follows wheat or other small grain, 
while the general practice is to plow or list the 
stubble land soon after harvest and prepare the 
seed bed by giving the necessary surface cultiva- 
tion, yet in parts of western Kansas and Nebraska 
many farmers disk in preparing the wheat seed 
bed without plowing, and much wheat is simply 
''stubbled in," or drilled in the stubble without 
any cultivation previous to sowing. This is a 
careless method, and yet where the soil drifts 
badly it seems advisable to practice it sometimes 
and not plow every year. 



WHEAT 61 

GRAIN DRILLS 

For general use the writer prefers a good single 
disk drill. They are the best trash riders, but in 
well prepared soil the double disk drill and shoe 
drill may do the better work, being more readily 
adjusted to plant the seed at a uniform depth. 

The press drill is often preferred for use in the 
lighter soils and drier climate. The better the 
preparation of the seed bed and the greater the 
storage of moisture in the subsoil, the less neces- 
sary the press wheels, and if the soil is wet and 
sticky and apt to roll on the wheels or crust, better 
work may be done with chain coverers than with 
the press wheels. It is an advantage to have the 
drill equipped with both chains and press wheels 
and use whichever will give the best results. 

There is an unquestionable advantage in plant- 
ing corn in deep listed furrows in a dry climate, 
and there may be a similar advantage in planting 
wheat in shallow listed furrows, a little deeper 
than the furrows made by the ordinary drill. 
Listing drills are now being manufactured and 
are used to a limited extent. The writer is not 
familiar with the results of their use but would 
recommend them for trial. In dry farming areas 
which are not likely to receive heavy rains after 
sowing, and where the soil is light and inclined to 
blow, seeding with a listing drill should give an 
advantage over the ordinary method. 

THICKNESS OF SEEDING 

It is usual to sow wheat in drills six inches 
apart. However in the dry climates a greater 



62 WHEAT 

space between drills, seven to eight inches, and 
even wider space is often preferred. The practice 
of planting wheat in rows in semi-arid areas, 
eighteen to twenty-four inches apart, and cul- 
tivating the crop has not given profitable results. 
There is a disadvantage in planting the drills too 
far apart because the wide spaces allow the growth 
of weeds and the wheat does not make so good a 
covering in its early growth, favoring soil drifting 
in windy climates. The proper thickness of stand 
should be secured by planting the seed thinner 
in the drill rows rather than to make the space 
between drills wider than six or seven inches. 
Comparative tests have usually favored planting 
in the closer drills. The amount of seed required 
to sow an acre varies from two to three pecks 
in the dry farming area to six to eight pecks in 
the more humid climates. 

DEPTH OF SEEDING 

Wheat should not be covered too deeply. A 
usual depth of drilling is two to three inches. To 




Fig. 17. — Drilling in wheat with a tractor. 



WHEAT 63 

secure ideal conditions for germination the seed 
should be deposited in the bottom of the drill 
furrow or against the firm soil which will supply 
moisture to swell and sprout the seed and give 
a favorable environment for the young roots. 
Thus the surface of the seed bed should not be 
loosened too deeply or too near seeding time. 

If the surface is loose and dry and there is 
moisture beneath, it may be better to deposit 
the seed against the firm soil even at a depth of 
four or five inches rather than to deposit it near 
the surface of the loose, ashy bed where it will be 
entirely dependent upon rain to sprout and grow. 
In a wet season shallow seeding in a deep, loose 
seed bed may give good results, but it is better 
to prepare a proper seed bed. 

WINTER KILLING 

Winter killing of wheat occurs frequently 
throughout the northern and middle portions of 
the winter wheat belt, and is often a source of 
great loss and inconvenience. Wheat winter 
kills in several ways: 

1. It may not be hardy enough to withstand 
the extreme cold of severe winter weather. 

2. Late sown wheat or weak plants may die 
for lack of moisture in a dry, open winter. Even 
a good stand of wheat may be destroyed by such 
unfavorable conditions, especially if planted in a 
loose seed bed which was not well stored with 
moisture. 

3. The grain may smother under a covering 
of ice or closely packed, icy snow. A heavy fall 



64 



WHEAT 



growth from early seeding is more apt to smother 
than later sown wheat or wheat which has been 
fall pastured. 

4. The most common kind of winter killing 
is caused by soil heaving, due to the alternate 
freezing and thawing of very wet soils, which 
gradually lifts the plants, exposes the roots and 
finally raising the plants entirely clear of the soil, 
breaks the roots completely destroying the crop. 
Such winter killing is more likely to occur on poorly 
drained, heavy, sticky soils that remain wet at 
the surface than on soils of a more sandy or loamy 
character. Soil heaving is most likely to occur 
late in the winter or early in the spring, but it 
may occur earlier in the winter, during a period of 
open weather when the'surface soil is wet. 




Fig. 18. — A successful cement, home-made roller. 



WHEAT 65 

MEASURES TO PREVENT WINTER KILLING 

Very little can be done to prevent winter killing 
when the unfavorable conditions are present, but 
there is more or less tendency to winter killing 
that may be, in a measure, prevented by making 
the growing conditions for the wheat as favorable 
as possible. Naturally wet land should be drained. 
A well pulverized, well settled seed bed may not 
heave so much as a loose seed bed and the wheat 
will not "freeze out" or dry out so quickly in a 
firm soil, hence careful preparation of the seed 
bed is a partial preventive. Other preventive 
measures are medium sowing (not too late or too 
early), pasturing a rank fall growth, and providing 
wind breaks or shelter belts to break the wind 
and catch the snow. Wheat seldom winter kills 
if it has a good covering of snow all winter. 
Rolling the wheat early in the spring to firm the 
soil about the roots will often give much benefit 
if the heaving has not progressed too far. 

Some varieties of winter wheat are much hardier 
than others to resist winter killing, as shown by 
the trials at our state experiment stations, and 
only such should be sown. Avoid bringing seed 
wheat from the south for seeding in northern 
sections, since it will usually prove less hardy 
than northern grown seed. 

CULTIVATION AFTER SEEDING 

The proper preparation of the seed bed is a 
much more important factor in the growing of 
small grains than the cultivation after seeding. 

5 



66 



WHEAT 



It is seldom necessary to cultivate the wheat 
seed bed after seeding. The necessary cultivation 
to cover the seed should be given the broadcasted 
field. In the growing of wheat the preparation 
of a favorable seed bed should leave the soil mellow 
at the surface. There are usually no heavy 
showers in the fall after the wheat is sown or 
early in the spring, the wheat grows rapidly, and 
by stooling soon covers the ground and protects 
the soil from beating rains. Thus wheat needs 
less cultivation after planting to maintain the soil 
mulch than is required by corn or other intertilled 
crops. 

After the wheat is up several inches and begin- 
ning to stool it may sometimes be harrowed 
with a light harrow or ''weeder" to break a crust 




Fig. 19. — With a gang of harrows one man can cover eighty 
acres aMay. 



WHEAT 67 

formed by heavy rains, but care should be taken 
not to loosen the soil too deeply so as to disturb 
or loosen the roots of the plants. The harrowing 
of young grain by covering the slender blades, 
may injure the stand. 

The results of experiment station trials in har- 
rowing wheat have not always been favorable. 
Winter wheat may often be rolled in the spring 
with advantage when there is much heaving of 
soil, in order to pack the soil about the roots. 
Rolling winter wheat in the spring at the Nebraska 
experiment station (Lincoln) increased the yield of 
grain five bushels per acre as an average for five 
years. In a windy climate it is dangerous to roll 
wheat as the smooth, pulverized surface soil left by 
rolling will drift, and destroy the crop and waste 
the soil. The writer has used the subsurface 
packer in place of the roller at the Fort Hays 
experiment station in Kansas with good results. 
The subsurface packer presses the soil about the 
wheat roots and leaves the surface slightly fur- 
rowed, which tends to resist soil drifting. 

PASTURING WHEAT 

It is a common practice to pasture winter wheat, 
and when done judiciously there may be no reduc- 
tion in yield. In fact, aside from the pasturage 
value which is estimated at from fifty cents to 
two dollars per acre, there may result an actual 
benefit to the crop from pasturing a rank growth 
of wheat on fertile soil. The grazing reduces the 
straw growth and may prevent winter smothering 
as well as lodging and blighting. The firming of 



68 



WHEAT 




Fig. 20. — Summer-tilled wheat field, North Platte, Nebr. sub- 
station. Yield, sixty-seven bushels per acre. 



the soil by the tramping of livestock may also 
prove an advantage on light land, or on a seed 
bed which was not well settled before seeding. 
A weak growth of wheat should not usually be 
pastured since the grazing will tend to reduce the 
vitality of the grain still more and result in a 
decreased yield. 

Wheat may be pastured in the fall and early 
spring when the soil is not too wet or too dry. 
Very dry soil becomes pulverized and dusty by 
the tramping of stock, and soil drifting results. 
The tramping of very wet soil causes it to ''poach " 
and puddle and the stand of wheat is likely to be 
injured. Too late pasturing in the spring retards 
the growth of the wheat and reduces the yield. 
At the Kansas experiment station, pasturing 
wheat on land of average fertility decreased the 



WHEAT 



69 



yield three bushels per acre as an average for 
several trials. 

SPRING MOWING 

When it cannot be pastured, mowing a very 
rank growth of wheat on fertile soil, early in the 
spring before it begins to shoot, will reduce the 
foliage growth and may prevent lodging and result 
in an increased yield. The writer has practiced 
this method with good results at the Kansas 
experiment station. If the growth is not too 
heavy, it may be left on the ground or the green 
wheat gathered for ensilage. 




70 WHEAT 

Chapter VI 
HARVEST AND YIELD 

THE AVERAGE YIELD 

Because of the relatively high price of the grain 
and the relatively low cost of production a good 
field of wheat is one of the best paying of farm 
crops. The yields are sometimes very large. The 
writer has produced a yield of sixty bushels of 
Turkey wheat per acre at the Kansas experiment 
station, not only in small plots but in a large 
field. Even larger yields have been reported in 
Kansas and in the Palouse country in Oregon, 
where yields of seventy bushels per acre have been 
secured. Yet in spite of the great producing 
capacity of wheat under favorable conditions, the 
average yield in the United States is less than 
fourteen bushels per acre. Compare this with the 
average yields of wheat for the last decade in 
several European countries — Germany twenty- 
nine bushels, Great Britain thirty-three bushels 
and Denmark forty bushels per acre, and we will 
see that the yields in the United States may be 
and should be greatly increased. 

CAUSE OF LOW YIELDS 

The low average yield of wheat in the United 
States is due to two primary causes — poor farming 
and damage to the crops by the elements. Much 
wheat is very carelessly planted. The farmer is 
continuously up against the problems of a decreas- 
ing soil fertility and a consequently decreasing 





I 






72 WHEAT 

productivity. The wheat crop is very susceptible 
to injury from unfavorable weather conditions 
at almost every stage in its growth. Dry weather 
at seeding time may cause a thin stand, or the 
grain may blow out or winter kill or be injured 
by drouth and hot winds almost up to the ma- 
turity stage; or it may be damaged by hail or 
lodged by storms and wind either before or after 
maturing, and even after harvesting it is liable 
to be damaged by wetting in the shock, causing 
bleaching and sprouting, thus reducing the yield 
and injuring the quality of the grain. 

DATE AND METHOD OF HARVESTING 

The wheat harvest of the United States begins 
in Texas in May and ends in North Dakota in 
August. In California the harvest begins about 
June first and continues nearly two months. East 
of the great plains, wheat is cut as soon as it is 
ripe or a little before, the harvest extending us- 
ually over a period of only a week or two weeks 
on a single farm. The grain is bound into bundles 
with a self binder, and placed in small shocks in 
the field; and later when it is dry enough it is 
hauled directly to the thresher, or more often put 
into stacks or barns and threshed later. 

THE HEADER 

In the western plains the common method of 
harvesting is with the header. The wheat is 
allowed to stand until fully ripe, when the heading 
begins and the headed grain is loaded loosely 
into barges and hauled directly to the stacks, 



WHEAT 73 




Fig. 22. — Harvesting wheat with a header in western 
Kansas. 



which are arranged in regular groups or ''settings" 
of two to four stacks, usually ten acres to a 
"setting." In the western states the harvest 
may continue for a month or six weeks on a single 
farm. This method of harvesting is rapid and econ- 
omical and is well adapted to a dry climate, but often 
the over-ripe wheat shatters and is damaged by 
storms and deteriorates in quality. In the eastern 
part of the dry farming belt the binder and the 
header are often both used on the same farm, 
thus making it possible to harvest more of the 
grain in prime condition. 

THE COMBINE 

On the Pacific coast where there is no danger 
from rains, the harvest lasts for several weeks 
or months, and the wheat does not usually deter- 



74 WHEAT 

iorate in quality in the field. It is sometimes dam- 
aged by sand storms. The club or square head 
wheat is the type generally grown, and its 
short straw and tight glumes prevent lodging 
and shattering. On the great wheat fields of 
California and Oregon the ''combine" is used, 
which harvests and threshes the wheat at a single 
operation, the grain being sacked and left in long 
trains in the field or later placed in large piles, 
from which it is hauled and loaded directly onto the 
cars for shipping. The relative harvesting capa- 
city of the different machines and methods may 
be compared as follows: 



Width of Swath 
Machine in Feet 


Harvesting Capacity 
per Day in Acres 


Binder 5 to 8 


10 to 20 


Header 8 to 14 


20 to 30 


Horse combine. .. 16 to 20 


25 to 45 


Steam combine. .. 24 to 42 


75 to 125 



The average price of a steam "combine" outfit 
is $7,500.00. They are used almost exclusively 
on the Pacific coast, and only on the larger farms 
containing from 3,000 to 20,000 acres of land. 
The horse ''combine" is most advantageously 
used on the smaller farms having less than 3,000 
acres. 

BEST STATE OF MATURITY TO HARVEST 

Wheat makes the largest yield and best quality 
of grain if harvested with the binder when it is 
just about fully ripe when the straw has mostly 
turned yellow and the grains are quite hard or 
in the hard dough stage. Wheat cut immature 



WHEAT 75 

is apt to become shrunken, making a decreased 
yield and lighter weight per bushel, and it is less 
strong in vitality than plump wheat; but by 
careful grading it will usually make good seed, 
and if not too light, may make good flour. It is 
a good practice in humid regions to begin harvest- 
ing before the grain is fully ripe because as so.on 
as the wheat is over-ripe it may be injured by 
storms and by rain which may lodge the grain 
or bleach it and cause it to deteriorate in quality 
and vitality, and the yield is likely to be reduced 
by shattering. In cutting with the header it is 
necessary to wait until the grain is dry enough 
to stack without danger of heating and spoiling. 
The binder may often be started a week or ten 
days before the header. 

SHOCKING 

Perhaps more wheat is injured in quality after 
harvest by unfavorable weather and careless 
handling than from any other cause. Some 
farmers are not only careless but absolutely 
neglectful in this respect. If the wheat is cut a 
little green, prompt shocking facilitates the com- 
pletion of the ripening process, favoring the trans- 
fer of the material from the straw to the grain, 
which prevents shrinkage; also the sheaves may 
be set up in better shocks if the straw is not al- 
lowed to become too dry and fluffy and brittle. 

Whether to cap shocks or leave them uncapped 
is a question. Unless wheat is well set up and 
the shocks carefully capped, the caps are apt to 
blow off and the grain will then become more 



76 WHEAT 

exposed than if the bundles were originally set 
in open shocks. The writer prefers to carefully 
shock and cap in humid climates rather than to 
set in long shocks or round shocks without caps. 
It may be necessary to go over the field after a 
wind storm and replace the caps that have blown 
off.. 

KINDS OF SHOCKS 

Long shocks are made by placing pairs of 
sheaves in a row, about twelve bundles in a shock, 
setting them down firmly and not too sloping, a 
pair at a time, and bracing the bundles against 
each other. Place the pairs alternating at each 
end to keep the shock plumb and regular. The 
outer pairs of bundles should slope slightly 
towards the inner pairs in order to brace the 
shock. A round shock with caps should contain 
from twelve to sixteen bundles. The writer pre- 
fers rather large round shocks if the grain is not 
too green, as they stand better. In building a 
round shock of sixteen bundles, place four pairs 
in a row, then place three bundles on each side 
and cap with two bundles. After the tops of the 
sheaves have been drawn somewhat together lay 
one bundle on the top of the shock at right angles 
to the prevailing winds, then break the second 
cap sheaf at the band, and spreading the ends 
fan-shape lay it cross-wise of the first cap with 
the tops towards the prevailing wind. 

Both for efficiency and economy of time two 
bundles should be handled at once. Shocking is 
a man's job. There is a knack about it that may 



WHEAT 77 

be easily learned by practice, but the average 
hired harvest hand is usually a poor shocker. In 
windy, dry climates as in our western plains, 
where storms may be severe but with no great 
amount of rain, it may be advisable to build a 
round shock without caps something after the 
manner of a miniature stack. Lay one bundle 
on the ground and break the top back to keep the 
heads off the ground; set two others over this 
one at right angles, with heads crossing. Now 
fill in the angles with other bundles thus thatching 
the shock and bringing the top of the last bundle 
over the heads of the others until nine to thirteen 
bundles have been placed in the shock. The bun- 
dles should all stand quite sloping. Such a shock 
will shed rain well and will not blow over. 

STACKING 

In parts of our wheat growing areas, bundle 
stacking is almost a lost art because of the present 
day practice of threshing out of the shock. In 
the writer's judgment, this is a mistake. There 
may not be any economy in stacking if the thresh- 
ing can be done early and as soon as the grain 
is dry enough, but this is not usually the case. 
Many farmers are obliged to leave their grain in 
the field for several weeks or months, until the 
thresher can make the rounds of several other 
farms, and if unfavorable weather intervenes the 
grain may be badly damaged ; while, if such grain 
could be stacked in well made stacks just when 
it is in prime condition, it would mean a great 
saving of grain and the extra labor would be 



78 WHEAT 

a profitable investment for the farmer. On the 
other hand, grain that is carelessly stacked may 
be badly damaged by heavy rains wetting the 
stacks; but if the stacks are well and properly 
made such damage should not occur. 

HOW TO BEGIN A STACK 

In starting a bundle stack, whether round or 
elongated, the bundles should be set up in the 
form of a large shock beginning at the middle of 
the stack and setting the bundles in regular order 
until the confines of the stack are reached, about 
ten feet in diameter for a round stack and ten 
feet wide for a rick. Then beginning at the edge, 
lay a double tier of bundles around the whole 
stack, the butts of the first row reaching the 
ground, with the butts of the second row just 
flush with the butts of the first row. Now lay 
a single row with the butts reaching a little past 
the bands of the first row, and continue this 
method, laying row after row around the stack 
until the center is reached. The rows of bundles 
may be lapped a little more toward the middle 
of the stack in order to keep the middle full, 
always having a good slope towards the edge of 
the stack. Starting again at the edge of the stack 
lay the first row of bundles with the butts flush 
with the original first row or extending a trifle, 
and then work toward the middle of the stack 
as before. 

HOW TO BUILD AND COMPLETE A STACK 

At the third round, extend the butts of the 



WHEAT 79 

outside row a few inches beyond the butts of the 
row beneath, and continue thus as succeeding 
tiers and rows are placed, "laying out the stack," 
always keeping the middle full, until the stack is 
seven or eight feet high. This forms the bulge. 
Now begin to draw in the outside rows a few inches 
at each round, thus finally bringing the stack to a 
narrow top made by the lapping of the last rows 
of bundles which should be tied down by driving 
sharpened sticks four to five feet into the top of 
the stack. The bulge should extend two to three 
feet beyond the base, which will make a stack 
with a ten foot base, fourteen to sixteen feet wide 
at the bulge. Do not tramp the outside rows of 
bundles. Pitch from both sides of the stack if 
possible. Each successive tier of bundles should 
thatch the preceding one, much the same as the 
shingles on a roof. Take considerable care as 
regards thatching above the bulge. By proper 
stacking, the grain below the bulge should be 
entirely protected from wetting. 




Fig. 24. — A good job of stacking. 



80 



WHEAT 



THE SECRET OF GOOD STACKING 

The secret of good stacking is to keep the 
middle full so that when the stack settles the 
bundles will slope towards the butts and towards 
the outside of the stack. Also the stack must be 
built plumb and regular. It is a job which requires 
some practice and considerable care, and a good 
stacker may well command an extra wage for 
such work. 

In stacking loose grain from the header, the 
same principle holds that the middle of the stack 
must be kept full and well tramped. The sides 
of the stack should be raked to remove the loose 
straw, and hangers should be placed as soon as the 
stack is completed to prevent the wind blowing 
off the top which is likely to occur in the first 
storm unless the top is tied down. 




WHEAT 81 

Chapter VII 
THRESHING AND MARKETING 

Threshing directly from the shock is perhaps 
the best and most economical method, if the 
threshing can be done early, as soon as the grain 
is dry and in good condition. Grain threshed from 
the shock will go through the sweat in the bin, 
but unless threshed damp it will not heat enough 
to injure the quality of the grain ; in fact, a little 
heating may be desirable as it will give the grain 
a darker, richer color. When the grain is stacked 
it should be allowed to go through the sweat 
before threshing. If threshed and put into a dry 
bin it may not sweat, since the sweating process 
requires that grain contain some excess moisture. 
Sweating may not be necessary for producing 
a good quality of grain, but it is desirable that 
wheat contain enough moisture when it is stacked 
or threshed to cause it to sweat; otherwise it will 
handle badly, shattering during the stacking or 
cracking during the threshing. Do not stack or 
thresh when the grain is too damp, since such 
grain may heat too much or become stack-burned 
or bin-burned and thus injured in quality and 
value, while its vitality for seed may be entirely 
destroyed. Also there may be considerable loss 
in threshing too damp or too tough grain, since 
all the grain may not be removed from the straw. 

MARKETING 

Much grain is now hauled directly to the ele- 
vator from the threshing machine and sold or 
6 



82 WHEAT 

stored for future sale. If the price is relatively 
high at threshing time it is usually advisable to sell 
at once. Often the price is high when threshing 
first begins but decreases as the supply of grain 
increases. The present tendency of rushing the 
grain to market at threshing time often results 
in glutting the market and lowering the price 
below normal ; and also the railroads and elevators 
are unable to handle the large quantities of grain 
properly. It would be better if more grain were 
stored in good bins on the farms and hauled to the 
market at an opportune time. This plan would 
tend to keep the market more steady and allow 
for the grain to be handled in better condition 
and more economically. 

SHRINKAGE AND STORAGE 

The shrinkage of dry wheat, as threshed and 
placed in the bin, is very small and will seldom 
amount to 2%. One percent is an average shrink- 
age for six months, and after the first loss of excess 
moisture, the grain should not decrease in weight 
even by longer storing, except as it may be in- 
jured by insect or animal pests. In the warmer 
climates, grain stored for several months is likely 
to be attacked by weevil and often severely 
damaged. Hence as a rule it is not advisable to 
hold wheat over during the summer in Kansas 
and states farther south, unless due precaution 
is taken to prevent weevil damage. 

The farmer should take into consideration the 
cost of storage in making his decision whether to 
sell or not at threshing time. This cost, including 



WHEAT 



83 




84 WHEAT 

the storage charges, the natural shrinkage in 
weight, the insurance against loss by fire and cy- 
clone, the interest on the money represented by 
the value of the wheat and the extra cost of 
handling the grain, may amount to from five to 
ten cents per bushel depending on the length of 
time of storage. Thus eighty to eighty-five cents 
per bushel at threshing time may be better than 
ninety cents six months later. 

THE PRICE OF WHEAT 

The market price of wheat is normally deter- 
mined by the world's conditions of supply and 
demand. The United States produces more wheat 
than is required for local consumption, therefore 
the price is fixed by the country which buys the 
export, but such price should under normal con- 
ditions be higher than the surplus producing 
country could fix for itself. Hence the export 
price is a benefit to the wheat grower. 

TRICKS OF THE TRADE 

It is true that with a large, visible supply of 
wheat in a certain section the tendency is to 
depress the local price at threshing time when the 
bulk of the crop is sold, but this is a ''trick of the 
trade" on the part of the buyers, due in part to 
the congested condition and the impression 
which the farmer receives that the supply is 
greater than the demand. The true market price 
of wheat is always established by the world's 
supply and not by the crop of any one state or 
locality. 



WHEAT 85 

Under the present conditions of trade by in- 
dividuals or corporations, the local price of wheat 
depends largely on competition. For example, 
two cents less per bushel was paid for wheat at 
a non-competitive point in North Dakota than 
at competitive points only six miles distant. When 
the local elevator systems combine, the only effec- 
tive remedy is for the farmers to combine and 
start independent elevators, and secure the aid 
of the law if necessary to get their wheat shipped 
to the primary markets. The matter of marketing 
and securing the highest market price is an im- 
portant part of the wheat raising business, and 
will receive much more attention and considera- 
tion in the future than it has in the past. 

COMMERCIAL GRADING OF WHEAT 

The value of wheat varies with its quality and 
with the purpose for which it is to be used. The 
principal characteristics which aid in fixing the 
grade are weight per bushel, plumpness, soundness, 
color, and freedom from smut, foreign matter and 
from mixture with a different type of wheat. 
Since gradations are continuous, it is difficult to 
draw the line, hence grading requirements are 
not very definite and are often largely a matter 
of judgment by the grain inspector. The com- 
mercial classes vary somewhat in the different 
markets. The general classes on the Chicago 
market are: White Winter Wheat, Red Winter 
Wheat, Hard Winter Wheat, Northern Spring 
Wheat, Spring Wheat, White Spring Wheat and 
Colorado Wheat. Each class has from two to 



86 WHEAT 

four regular grades, and wheat may be of such 
poor quahty as to be graded "rejected'' or ''no 
grade." 

INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION 

The rules for grading grain are fixed by boards 
of grain inspectors in the several states where the 
great markets are located. These rules are pub- 
lished and may be secured from the chairmen of 
said boards, or from almost any grain dealer. In all 
the great markets there is a rigid system of grain 
inspection and grain grading under state super- 
vision and control which greatly facilitates the 
movement of wheat and reduces fraud and unfair- 
ness in the grain trade. State weighing depart- 
ments have been established at the great terminals 
in several states, by which all the wheat is now 
officially weighed, and the cheating by false weigh- 
ing which was formerly notorious has been prac- 
tically done away with. 

LOCAL GRAIN INSPECTION 

There is much less organization and control 
of the handling of grain at the local elevators 
than at the terminals. The correctness of the 
weighing and the grading, and the fairness of the 
price of wheat at the local elevator depend largely 
on local competition and on the honesty of the 
grain dealer. As a rule, the local buyer is honest 
in the weighing. Fraudulent weighing is very 
much condemned by all grain dealers associations, 
and usually competition compels the dealer to pay 
all the market will allow. 



WHEAT 87 

The local dealer often gives too little considera- 
tion to the actual quality of wheat in fixing the 
local market price. He learns about what the 
general run of the wheat bought at his elevator 
will grade, and he then pays about the same price 
to each farmer, even though the wheat may 
actually vary considerably in quality and grade. 
The writer has stood at a grain elevator in a 
western Kansas town and observed the delivery of 
wheat which in his judgment should have been 
given three different grades, yet the grain was 
all graded No. 2 and sold at the same price. This 
is not only unfair to the farmer selling the better 
grade of wheat but it encourages carelessness and 
neglect on the part of the producers in keeping 
their grain pure and of high quality. The grain 
dealer should make it to the advantage of the 
farmer to sell a pure type of wheat of high grade 
by paying a higher price for such grain, and he 
should advertise the fact. 

CO-OPERATION THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 

The establishment of co-operative grain ele- 
vators by the farmers has progressed rapidly in 
the last ten years, and is having a salutary effect 
in maintaining more uniform prices to the pro- 
ducers, but such co-ot)eration considers one side 
of the problem only — the producer's side. It takes 
no account of the handling and distribution of the 
grain and its manufacture into food products and 
their ultimate purchase and use by the consumer. 
In recent years the very high cost of living is 
calling attention to the fact that our methods of 



88 



WHEAT 



handling and distribution are cumbersome and 
more expensive than they need be. We need co- 
operation along the whole line, and a spirit of 
friendliness and fairness among all those interested 
in order that these conditions may be improved. 
The present condition calls for a careful investiga- 
tion and such reorganization of our methods and 
practices as may be found necessary in order that 
the farmers' products may be more fully utilized 
and placed in the hands of the consumer without 
unnecessary waste, and at a reasonable cost. 

COST OF PRODUCTION* 

The cost of raising wheat varies greatly in 
different sections of the United States. The pro- 
duction of a bushel of wheat in Washington costs 
20 to 35 cents; in Oregon, twenty cents; and in 




Fig. 26. — Wheat field on Burlington farm, Holdrege, Nebr. 
Yield, 52 bushels per acre. 

*Data from Book of Wheat — Dondlinger, 



WHEAT 89 

North Dakota, 50 to 54 cents. The acre cost, 
including interest on land and equipment, has 
been computed since 1900 in several states as 
follows: 

North Dakota, $8.28; Minnesota, $6.40; Kan- 
sas, $7.8a; Nebraska, $8.26; Washington, $7.20; 
and Wyoming, $10.38. This is an average cost 
of $8.05 per acre or fifty-seven and one-half cents 
per bushel. To raise a bushel of wheat in Russia 
costs 34 to 48 cents; in Italy, sixty-nine cents; 
in Hungary, 52 to 63 cents; in Germany, ninety- 
five cents; and in India, sixty-five cents. The 
acre cost is given as $8.00 for Russia; $8.29 for 
Argentina; and $11.69 for Hungary. 

The cost of raising wheat and all kinds of small 
grains has been greatly reduced by the introduc- 
tion of improved implements of tillage and modern 
harvesting machinery. To produce a bushel of 
wheat in the United States in 1830 required 183 
minutes of human labor. In 1896 only ten 
minutes were required. The labor cost per bushel 
including both animal and human labor is stated 
as twenty cents in 1830, and only ten cents in 
1896. The greatest saving has been in the har- 
vesting. The human labor which is still required 
is quite light compared with that of 1830. 

PROFIT IN WHEAT RAISING 

The actual profit in raising wheat, however, is 
not large. In a favorable season, bonanza farmers 
of the Red River valley made a profit of $3.32 
per acre, or 8% on the capital invested. This 
takes no account of the exhaustion of soil fertility. 



90 WHEAT 

To make much profit it will be seen that the yield 
must be increased above the average fourteen 
bushels per acre. The cost of raising an acre of 
wheat has been greatly reduced by the introduction 
and use of improved machinery and by decreasing 
the labor cost. Now we must give more attention 
to decreasing the cost per bushel by increasing 
the acre yield. The sixty bushel yield which the 
writer produced at the Kansas experiment station 
in 1906 cost less than fifteen cents per bushel. 

The price of wheat on the market depends on 
the grade. It is therefore of great importance 
that every farmer be familiar with the methods 
of scoring and grading grain. 

SCORING WHEAT 

Judging and scoring of grains is now a regular 
part of the course of study in our agricultural 
colleges. The methods and score cards used in 
different institutions vary considerably. When 
a sample of wheat is examined from a ''seed 
standpoint/' purity, color, weight, uniformity, 
quality and vitality are noted. From a "market 
standpoint," weight and quality are the main 
points considered, but purity as regards freedom 
from foreign substance, other grain, or other types 
of wheat is also given an important place. The 
weight of wheat is indicated by its plumpness and 
dryness. Damp grain or shrunken grain is light. 
The quality relates not only to the weight, the 
soundness and dryness of the grain, but also to 
its composition or flour-making value as indicated 
by the texture, hardness or softness of the kernel, 
and the relative thickness of the hull. 



WHEAT 



91 



SCORE CARD 

The score card given below brings out the points 
mentioned as well as any perhaps, but the reader 
is advised to get in touch with the agricultural 
college of his own state in order to secure special 
information which may apply to the grading or 
scoring of wheat in a particular territory or 
market. 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD* 
WHEAT 

Name of variety. 



Perfect 
Score 



EXHIBIT NUMBER 
3 



Trueness to Type or Breed Character- 
istics: 

1. Uniformity 

2. Freedom from mixture 

3. Shape of kernel — conformity to standard 

4. Size of kernel — conformity to standard . 

5. Color — conformity to standard 

6. Gluten or starch. Amount of gluten is 
indicated by the hardness. In soft 
wheats mark on the per cent of starch as 
indicated by softness of berry. These 
qualities may be judged approximately 
by the color and texture of the kernel . . . 

Market Conditions: 

1. Vitality and maturity as indicated by 
plumpness and brightness of color (make 
germination test) 

2. Moisture content (make moisture deter- 
mination) 

3. Freedom from smut 

4. Weight per bushel 

5. Soundness or freedom from injury. No ] 
broken, rotten, sprouted, musty, bin- > 
burnt or otherwise injured berries J 

6. Amount of foreign matter (determine 
per cent) 



Total 100 

Commercial Grade 



Student's Name. 



Date_ 



* Note — This form of score card, used at the Kansas Agricul- 
tural College, was prepared by the author. 



92 WHEAT 

Chapter VIII 
WHEAT ENEMIES 

WEEDS 

Weeds damage wheat both by reducing the 
yield and injuring the quahty of the grain. The 
most objectionable weeds associated with wheat 
fields are chess or cheat, wild oats, cockle, wheat- 
thief, and wild mustard. All of these are annuals 
and readily controlled by careful preparation of 
the seed bed and a proper rotation of crops. 
Weed pests become troublesome only where 
wheat is grown continuously in the same fields. 
The growth of weeds is a protest of nature against 
the practice of continual grain cropping. There 
is no remedy except rotation of crops, and clean 
cultivation or clean summer fallow. 

INJURIOUS INSECTS 

It is impossible in this discussion to more than 
touch on this part of the subject. The insects and 
diseases which attack wheat often seriously injure 
or destroy the crop, and in some cases there is 
little or no means of preventing the damage. 

CHINCH BUG AND HESSIAN FLY 

Of the insect enemies the chinch bug and the 
Hessian fly are perhaps the most destructive. 
The remedies to stop their ravages are preventive 
only, such as burning over the stubble land, which 
allows the chinch bug no cover for hibernating, 
and destroys the Hessian fly, since the insect 



WHEAT 




stages al^^Jll ^"f"^!^%«^ Wheat -Chinch-bugs in different 
&Lf ^^o/th- A single egg is shown in a, and others on 
the roots and a lower eaf; in 6 is shown a very young bug 

matu?e'inseoT^ Th^' '\''' f "?^^' T^^l^ ^ ^^^^^^^e adult and 



94 WHEAT 

remains in the pupa stage in the stubble after 
harvest. "Trap crops" are sometimes sown for 
both insects, such as patches of millet planted 
early in the spring to attract the chinch bug, and 
the early planting of wheat in the fall to act as 
a decoy to attract the flies. When the bugs have 
congregated or the flies have laid their eggs, these 
crops may be plowed under, thus destroying the 
insects. Migrating chinch bugs may be kept out 
of the fields to some extent by plowing protecting 
furrows about the fields, and making coal tar 
barriers, etc. Under certain favorable climatic 
conditions chinch bugs may be largely destroyed 
by fungous diseases to which they are subject. 
The Hessian fly appears early in the fall, and its 
attacks may be avoided by late sowing. 

At the Kansas experiment station (Manhattan) 
the average of several trials shows results favor- 
ing seeding during the last week in September 
or the first week in October. Even later seeding 
is less affected by the fly, but the very late sown 
wheat is likely to make a weak growth in the fall, 
and is more liable to be winter killed than earlier 
sown wheat. Perhaps one of the best means for 
checking these insect pests and the plant diseases 
which attack wheat, is to practice a regular system 
of crop rotation. The Hessian fly can be starved 
out almost completely by the abandonment for 
one year of the crops in which it breeds — wheat, 
rye and barley ; while if a system of rotation with 
corn be adopted that would entirely dissociate 
small grains for a single season very little damage 
from chinch bugs would occur. 



WHEAT 95 

GRAIN WEEVILS 

There are several species of grain weevils which 
attack and often severely damage stored wheat. 
The two most common in the United States are 
the granary weevil, the adult insect of which is 
a small snouted beetle, and the grain moth or 
angoumois. The larvae of these insects and also 
the beetle itself attack the wheat kernels, devour- 
ing the mealy part. They develop and multiply 
very rapidly. The remedy is fumigation with 
bisulphide of carbon, one pound to one ton of grain 
or to 1,000 cubic feet of empty space. Hydro- 
cyanic acid gas is used for fumigating mills and 
large grain elevators. Naphthaline is the most 
effective preventive. 

FUNGOUS DISEASES— RUST AND SMUT 

Among plant diseases, rust and smut are per- 
haps the most destructive. There is no remedy 
for rust other than the breeding of rust-resistant 
varieties of wheat, and so far no fully rust- 
resistant varieties have been produced, although 
certain varieties growing side by side in a field 
often show a different susceptibility to the attacks 
of rust. This may be due, however, to different 
periods of maturing and to weather conditions 
as much as to the variety. 

It is estimated that the damage by stinking smut 
in many seasons amounts to 10% of the total wheat 
crop of the United States, while certain fields 
may show a much larger percentage of damage. 
This disease may be almost wholly prevented. In 



96 WHEAT 

threshing smutty wheat the smut balls break and 
the small, dust-like spores adhere to the wheat 
kernels. When such wheat is planted the smut 
spores sprout and produce a fungous growth 
which infects the young wheat plant and grows 
within it, fruiting and forming its spores in the 
head of the wheat, taking the place of the grain. 
Any treatment which will destroy these spores 
without injuring the grain of wheat will prevent 
smut. Several treatments have been more or less 
successfully used, as hot water, copper sulphate 
or bluestone, corrosive sublimate, and formal- 
dehyde. 

TREAT WITH FORMALDEHYDE 

The best remedy known for stinking smut in 
wheat is to treat the seed with a solution of formal- 
dehyde. Use one pound of formaldehyde (40% 
strength) to forty gallons of water. Either spray 
the wheat or dip it into a barrel or tank containing 
the solution, taking care that the grain becomes 
thoroughly wet. The wet grain may be left in piles 
and covered with blankets for a few hours in 
order to retain the formaldehyde gas and insure 
the destruction of all the smut spores. Then 
spread the grain quite thinly on a tight floor or 
canvas and allow it to dry from twelve to twenty- 
four hours, shoveling it over once or twice. Care 
should be taken not to allow the wet grain to heat 
in the pile. The usual method is to treat one day 
the seed that is to be sown the next day. The 
wheat thus treated will swell some, and in order 
to sow the required amount per acre the drill 



WHEAT 97 

should be set to sow about one-fifth to one-fourth 
more grain than the usual amount. If the smut 
spores adhering to the wheat grains are destroyed, 
there is little danger from the smut spores that 
may remain in the soil coming into contact with 
the young wheat plants, and the resulting crop 
should be practically free from stinking smut. 

Formaldehyde is a poison, and if the treated 
wheat is eaten by poultry or other livestock while 
it is wet it is likely to injure or kill the animals, 
but when the wheat has become fairly dry there 
is no danger from feeding the treated grain be- 
cause the formaldehyde evaporates and no poison 
will remain in the wheat. 

Loose smut of wheat is less injurious than hid- 
den or stinking smut, but it is harder to control. 
Loose smut destroys the heads and grain the 
same as stinking smut but it matures earlier and 
the smut spores are scattered by the wind while 
the wheat is growing. Some of these spores fall 
into the glumes of the growing wheat and sprout, 
and infect the kernels and make some growth 
before the grain reaches maturity. These young 
smut plants remain dormant from the time the 
wheat matures until the grain is planted, when 
they start growth again with the sprouting wheat, 
and growing within the wheat plant reach ma- 
turity forming spores on the spike where the 
wheat grain should have formed. These black- 
ened or bare spikes occur soon after the wheat 
reaches the full heading stage. 

It is difficult to destroy the young smut plants 
which have started within the wheat kernels. 



98 WHEAT 

Ordinary treatments for stinking smut do not kill 
loose smut but loose smut may be destroyed by 
treating the infected seed grain with hot water. 
This treatment is also effective for destroying 
stinking smut. 

HOT WATER TREATMENT FOR LOOSE OR STINKING 
SMUT OF WHEAT* 

Dip the wheat in hot water at a temperature 
of from 132 to 133° Fahrenheit. The seed should 
be placed for the purpose in a coarsely woven 
basket covered with wire netting, or » else in a 
coarse gunny sack. The basket or sack must not 
be filled full, as the grain must be loose inside. 
There should be six or eight times as much hot 
water as the bulk of the grain to be treated, and 
the temperature of the water must be kept at 
the right point by letting in steam, or by adding 
hot water from time to time if necessary. The 
grain must be lifted out of the water four or five 
times during the treatment and allowed to drain. 
This is needful to insure that all the grain comes 
into intimate contact with hot water at the right 
temperature. 

If not convenient to keep the water at 132 or 
133° it may be allowed to go higher, but the treat- 
ment must be shortened, and at 145° the treat- 
ment must not be prolonged beyond five minutes, 
and care must be taken that the water is even in 
temperature throughout; otherwise some grain 



*The above treatment for stinking smut is given in Farmers 
Bulletin No. 250,United States Department of Agriculture 



WHEAT 99 

will be killed and other grain insufficiently treated 
so the smut will not be killed. 

If steam is available the water can easily be 
heated by conducting a steam pipe into the vessel. 
The steam, in getting in, heats the water and at the 
same time stirs it thoroughly. The hot water 
treatment requires no outlay at all for chemicals, 
but requires careful attention and considerably 
more labor than any of the other treatments. If 
properly carried out it is undoubtedly the best 
treatment for all kinds of grain smuts. 

After removing the grain from the hot water, 
spread on a clean floor or on a piece of canvas to 
dry. The layer of grain should not be more than 
three inches thick. If it cannot be spread out at 
once, dip in cold water and set to one side until 
it can be attended to. It dries best if spread 
while hot. After one portion is spread out an- 
other can be treated, and so on, until all the seed 
has been disinfected. 







s J,n|j;i|ite|. 


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pBMBW^ 


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■.. . 



100 WHEAT 

Chapter IX 
MAINTAINING SOIL FERTILITY 

Our agricultural teaching and modern methods 
of farm practice have resulted in largely increased 
crop yields at the expense of soil fertility. Experi- 
ment stations and many farmers have been busy 
investigating and applying better tillage methods 
in the growing of wheat, and this is well. As the 
writer has determined by experiments it is pos- 
sible to double the yield of wheat in a single 
season by careful and timely preparation of the 
seed bed ; but the scientific tillage of the soil should 
be combined with crop rotation, green manuring 
and the use of barnyard manure and other neces- 
sary fertilizers, or it will degenerate into a mining 
proposition — mining the soil of its fertility. 

In a sense, ''tillage is manure" because the 
favorable conditions produced by the cultivation 
of the land cause the plant food in the soil to 
become available faster than would be the case 
without tillage. But good tillage alone will not 
keep the soil fertile; rather it may cause the fer- 
tility of the soil to become exhausted more rapidly 
by the production of larger crops. There is also 
a tendency to waste the soluble plant food by 
drainage and soil drifting. The great problem 
in western wheat farming today is not how to get 
larger yields out of the soil for a few years, but 
rather how to produce paying crops every year 
and at the same time maintain the potential 
fertility and productiveness of the land. 



WHEAT 



101 



CONTINUOUS CROPPING THE MAIN FAULT 

The fault with most wheat producing sections 
is that the land is cropped with wheat too con- 
tinuously. The continuous growing of wheat on 
the same soil has always proved disastrous in 
the course of years. This has been the history 
of wheat farming, and largely on this account the 
wheat-growing area of the United States has 
moved ever westward. It appears now that most 
of the land available for the growing of wheat has 
been taken, and if wheat raising in this country 
is to continue to be profitable there must be a 
change in our methods of farming. 





Fig. 28. — A typical Montana wneat field. Million3 of acres like 
these are still waiting for the plow. 



102 WHEAT 

WHEAT SICK LAND 

Fertile land which has been cropped with wheat 
for a long time becomes ''wheat sick/' It is not 
necessarily exhausted in fertility — it needs a rest, 
a change of crop. The soil is likely to become 
exhausted in nitrogen and organic matter and 
humus, and it may become deficient in some of 
the mineral elements of plant food. But the prob- 
lem of reduced yields is not a matter of plant food 
alone. The continuous cropping with wheat 
infects the soil with plant diseases and injurious 
insects, and the loss of organic matter and con- 
tinuous tillage destroys the ideal texture and tilth 
which characterized the virgin prairie when it 
was first broken. What the old wheat land needs 
worst and first is a proper rotation of crops which 
will serve to aerate the soil and free it of weeds 
and infectious diseases and injurious insects, and 
at the same time renew the supply of organic 
matter and nitrogen. 

ROTATION PLANS 

In planning rotations, four general classes of 
crops should be provided for if conditions will 
allow: 

1. A ''money" crop, or crop to be sold, which 
may remove from the soil considerable quantities 
of plant food. 

2. A leguminous crop to return nitrogen and 
organic matter to the soil, and also by its deep 
root system to collect subsoil phosphorus, potas- 
sium and lime. 



WHEAT 103 

3. (a) A crop for feeding farm animals, the 
plant food of which is largely returned to the soil 
in manure; (b) a crop for green manure in case 
livestock raising is not a part of the farming plan. 

4. An intertilled crop for destroying weeds and 
improving the physical and sanitary conditions 
of the soil. 

The arrangement or order of crops in a rotation 
system should follow as far as possible these 
rules: 

1. To alternate shallow and deep rooted crops. 

2. Crops which furnish organic matter should 
alternate with those which favor its rapid decom- 
position. 

3. Use at least one leguminous crop in the 
rotation in order to increase the supply of plant 
food in the soil. 

4. Crops in rotation should vary in time of 
planting, cultivation, and harvest season as much 
as possible, and in amount and kind of their 
plant food requirements. 

5. (a) Commercial fertilizer should be applied 
to the special crop which will be most benefited 
by its use, such as wheat, clover, or alfalfa, (b) 
Manure should be applied to the hardy, more 
vigorous growing crops, such as corn and forage 
crops or grasses and clover which should precede 
wheat. 

The kinds of crops in the rotation will depend 
upon the climatic and soil conditions, the market 
requirements and the kind of farming. In the 
more humid sections ideal rotation systems are 
not difficult to plan and execute. The following 



104 WHEAT 

are some wheat rotations in practical use which 
include most of the requirements named : 

1. Wheat, clover, potatoes — three year rota- 
tion. 

2. Wheat, clover, corn, oats — four year rota- 
tion. 

3. Wheat, clover and timothy (2 years), corn, 
oats — five year rotation. 

4. Wheat (2 years), alfalfa (5 years), corn 
(2 years), oats — ten year rotation. 

5. Wheat, wheat plus catch crop of cowpeas, 
corn, oats — four year rotation. 

6. Wheat, wheat, cowpeas — three year rota- 
tion. 

7. Wheat, corn and cowpeas, oats — three year 
rotation. 

It is possible to use barley or other small grain 
in place of oats. Other green manure crops may 
be used instead of cowpeas, such as sand vetch, 
field peas, sweet clover, crimson clover, etc. 

ROTATION FOR SEMI-ARID LAND 

A regular and systematic rotation of crops is 
not so easily adopted and carried out in the semi- 
arid regions, but the following plans may be 
successfully used: 

1. Wheat, flax, fallow — three year rotation. 

2. Wheat, corn, flax — three year rotation. 

3. Wheat, flax, corn, oats — four year rotation. 

4. Wheat (4 years), grasses and legumes 
(5 years), corn — ten year rotation. 

5. Wheat (2 years) green crop with fallow, 
corn — four year rotation. 




< 
I 

05 



106 WHEAT 

6. Wheat, kafir (or other sorghum), fallow — 
three year rotation. 

7. Wheat, wheat plus green manure, kafir, 
fallow — four year rotation. 

8. Wheat (2 years), kafir, green crop with 
fallow — four year rotation. 

9. Wheat, corn (or other forage), oats plus 
green manure, fallow — four year rotation. 

10. Wheat, corn, cowpeas with fallow — three 
year rotation. 

Alfalfa may be grown successfully and used in 
rotation in the more favorable soils of the semi- 
arid regions. The first five plans are adapted to 
the northwestern spring wheat area, where it 
is difficult to use leguminous or green manuring 
crops. The last five may be successfully prac- 
ticed in Kansas and the southwest in the growing 
of winter wheat. Plan No. 6 is now being prac- 
ticed on the 3,600 acre experimental farm at 
Fort Hays. One-third of the tilled upland on 
this farm is planted to wheat each year, one-third 
to intertilled and forage crops, mainly kafir, milo 
and sweet sorghum, and one-third remains fallow 
each year, making no crop and receiving summer 
culture. During the year of fallow the land should 
receive a dressing of manure, or early planted crops 
may be plowed under for green manure. Wheat 
follows the summer fallow and the forage crops 
and the sorghums follow the wheat, thus every 
year the great income producing crop, wheat, is 
grown under the most favorable conditions. Where 
conditions are more humid two or three crops of 
wheat may be raised after fallow before the field 
is planted again with sorghums. 



W HiE A T 107 

MIXED FARMING 

Such a system of farming compels the raising 
of livestock to consume the forage, and this will 
necessitate the building of silos and forage barns 
to save the forage in large enough quantities so 
that there will always be a reserve supply to tide 
over a very dry season and thus make dry farming 
permanent and sure. In the dry farming areas of 
the Pacific slope and in the drier parts of the west- 
ern plains and mountain states where dry farming 
is practiced, alternate cropping and bare summer 
fallowing seems to be as yet the most practical 
method of maintaining crop yields. Perhaps 
haps the future may develop green crops which 
may be successfully used for green manure in these 
dry areas in order to restore the decreasing soil 
humus and organic matter. Under irrigation it 
is possible to introduce one or more of the rota- 
tion plans in use in humid climates, with perhaps 
some variation in the kinds of crops. 

INFLUENCE OF CROP ROTATION ON WHEAT YIELDS 

The influence of individual crops in rotations 
on succeeding wheat yields is shown by a long 
series of experiments at the North Dakota exper- 
ment station, in which wheat was grown after 
each of several crops each year for three years in 
succession in four year rotations, thus eliminating 
the effect of seasons. As assistant agronomist 
at the North Dakota experiment station the writer 
had the privilege of conducting this work for 
five years (1898 to 1902) and started this particu- 
lar series of rotations. The results taken from 



108 



WHEAT 



North Dakota bulletin No. 100, 
and Doneghue, are given below. 

Table V 



by Shepperd 



Showing increase in yield per acre of wheat after 
various crops, compared wuth wheat after wheat. 



Wheat After 



1st Year 2d Year 
Eushels Bushels 



Wheat 

Corn 

Potatoes 

Mangels 

Pape 

Field peas 

Millet 

Timothy 

FaUow (no crop). 



I Total 
3d Year Increase 
Eushels Bushels 




I Check I Check Check | Check 



7.87 

1.49^ 

6.95 

7.55 

6.53 

7.41 

1.84 

7.45 



*Decrea^-e. 

**There was 6.76 bushels increase in yieM th.^ fjurth y^ar. 

There w?s no increase in yield of wheat, as an 
average, after flax or other small grains. The 
largest total increase in wheat yields for three 
years was 19.68 bushels per acre, after rape. The 
second largest was 17.84 bushels after corn. The 
average ''check'' yield of wheat after wheat, in 
corn series was 15.35 bushels per acre; in the rape 
series, 16.14 bushels per acre. 

FERTILIZER NEEDS OF WHEAT 

The plant food constituents in a normal wheat 
crop of twenty-five bushels per acre, also in a 
normal crop of corn, oats, clover, alfalfa, and the 
fertility in manure and some other fertilizers 
together with its value, are given in Table VI. 



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110 



WHEAT 



The values of the fertiUzing constituents are 
calculated at the market price of car lots as 
follows: 

Nitrogen in sodium nitrate 15c per pound 

Phosphorus in ground rock phosphate 3c per pound 

Potassium in kainit 6c per pound 

Table VII 

Amounts of plant food constituents in fertile 
soils: (''Fertilizers and Crops" by VanSlyke) 



Constituents 


Percent 


Pounds in one Acre to Depth 
of Nine Inches 


Nitrogen 

Phosphorus. . . 

Potassium 

Calcium 


0.10 to 0.30 
0.03 to 0.11 
0.80 to 1.60 
0.20 to 1.50 


2,500 to 7,500 

750 to 2,750 

20,000 to 40,000 

5,000 to 37,500 


Average 

5,100 

1,750 

30,000 

21,250 



The average weight of an acre of soil to the 
depth of nine inches is taken as 2,500,000 pounds. 
The great bulk of the soil consists of inert ma- 
terials, as clay and sand, composed largely of 
aluminum and silica. The plant food constituents 
are present only in relatively small proportions. 
The combined amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus 
and potassium in fertile soils are usually less 
than 1% and only a very small proportion of these 
small amounts are in forms immediately available 
for the use of plants. Considering the small 
amounts required by crops, the supply of plant 
foods in the soil will theoretically last a very long 
time. For instance comparing Tables V and VI 
it will be seen that the average fertile soil con- 
tains enough phosphorus in nine acre-inches to 
produce more than 200 twenty-five bushel wheat 



WHEAT 111 

crops; enough nitrogen for 1,000 crops and enough 
potassium for 10,000 crops. It is true also that 
many subsoils to the depth of several feet at 
least, are often as rich in the mineral plant foods 
as the surface soil. We know that in practice 
however, a very fertile soil will not continue 
productive by continuous cropping without fer- 
tilization for even 100 years. After thirty or forty 
years of continuous wheat cropping, the fertile 
Red River Valley lands are showing decreasing 
yields. In fact a considerable area of this splendid 
land is now being abandoned for wheat culture 
because it will not produce yields large enough 
to pay for the farming. 

One reason for this condition is the waste of 
soluable plant food by oxidation and drainage, 
especially the nitrogen and the lime. It was 
found at the Minnesota experiment station that 
in growing eight crops of wheat continuously, 
enough nitrogen disappeared from the soil to 
produce nineteen other crops of wheat — thirty 
bushels per acre. Again the mineral plant foods 
are locked up and become unavailable in soils 
which reach an unfavorable physical condition, 
due to continuous cropping and loss of organic 
matter. 

WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE 

It is evident therefore that theory and practice 
do not agree. Land cannot be cropped for a 
long time without fertilization and remain pro- 
ductive. It is also evident that nitrogen, lime 
and phosphorus are the limiting elements in soil 
productivity. 



112 WHEAT 

Hopkins is authority for the statement that 
the fertihty of all normal soils in the United 
States may be permanently maintained and even 
increased by adopting systems of farming which 
will supply three constituents regularly and in 
proper amounts, namely, limestone, phosphorus 
and organic matter. The limestone is required 
to correct acidity, and is most cheaply applied 
in the form of ground limestone rock as a surface 
dressing. The phosphorus is needed solely for 
its plant food value, and its most economical 
source is ground rock phosphate. The supply 
of organic matter must be renewed to provide 
nitrogen and to keep the soil in favorable physical 
condition. It has to do also with making avail- 
able the potassium and other essential plant food 
elements contained in the soil in abundance. 

The ideal farm practice is to return to the soil 
all plant food not sold from the farm. The or- 
ganic matter may be in part maintained by plow- 
ing down the stubble and by saving the straw 
and manure and returning it again to the soil. 

Investigations at several experiment stations 
have determined that about one-third of the total 
organic matter and nitrogen in a red clover plant 
is contained in the roots and stubble. Alfalfa con- 
tains a larger proportion of nitrogen in its roots, 
while sweet clover and crimson clover may con- 
tain a little less than red clover. If a crop of any 
of these legumes is plowed under for green manure 
there is added to the soil a definite amount of 
organic matter and nitrogen which may be readily 
computed. Thus the plowing under of a crop of 



WHEAT 113 

clover equivalent to a ton of dry hay will add forty 
pounds of nitrogen per acre besides that contained 
in the roots of the clover. 

From Table VII it may be readily determined 
how much manure or other fertilizer will be neces- 
sary to use to return to the soil the amounts of 
plant food removed by a twenty-five bushel wheat 
crop, and normal yields of other crops used in 
rotation. 

In a four year rotation of wheat, corn, oats and 
clover, the supply of organic matter and nitrogen 
should be maintained by the rotation of clover 
and by the application of fifteen tons of manure 
every four years to the clover sod before plowing 
for corn; or in the case of grain farming without 
much livestock, the plowing under of one crop 
of clover with the addition of nine tons of manure 
per acre will supply the required nitrogen. Fifty 
pounds of rock phosphate applied with fifteen 
tons of manure, or one hundred pounds applied 
with nine tons every fourth year, will maintain 
the phosphorus content of the soil. 

It is possible to keep up the nitrogen supply 
without manure by using the rotation with clover, 
and plowing down the second cutting and adding 
a catch crop of cowpeas, planted after wheat and 
plowed under in the fall, preceding corn. This 
plan would require the use of 250 pounds of phos- 
phate rock to maintain the phosphorus. If the 
soil becomes acid or is lacking in lime, it should 
receive an application of from one to three tons of 
ground limestone per acre every fourth season. 
If there is an abundant supply of phosphate in 

8 



114 WHEAT 

the soil, it will doubtless not be necessary to use 
more than one-half of the theoretically required 
amount of phosphate in order to insure the pro- 
duction of normal crops; a heavier application 
would make larger yields possible. 

Other commercial phosphate fertilizers are super- 
phosphate, bone meal and Thomas slag. These 
forms may be used in place of the ground rock 
phosphate but are rather more expensive. There 
are other commercial fertilizers which may be 
used to advantage on some soils but it seems best 
not to mention them here lest it confuse the 
reader. 

METHODS OF FERTILIZATION 

If commercial fertilizers are used in growing 
wheat, they had best be applied to the wheat 
crop at seeding time by the use of a fertilizer drill. 
Manure may be applied directly to wheat, prefer- 
ably as a surface dressing after seeding and often 
with good results. The writer increased the yield 
of wheat thirty per cent on upland at the Kansas 
experiment station, by applying ten tons of well 
rotted manure per acre as a surface dressing to fall 
wheat. Coarse strawy manure should not be used 
for this purpose. A better plan is to supply the 
necessary plant food for the wheat crop by manur- 
ing or fertilizing other crops in the rotation. The 
manure may be profitably applied to corn, alfalfa, 
clover or grasses, and the clovers and grasses 
respond well also to phosphate and limestone. 

There is a double advantage in applying fer- 
tilizer to the legume crop, since it not only causes 



WHEAT 115 

an increased yield of the legume, but a greater 
storage of plant food in the roots of the legume 
crop, due to the increased growth, and this 
increase in the fertility of the soil will be available 
to the crop which follows the legume. 

HOW TO USE MANURE 

Manure should not be applied in too heavy 
applications, a light dressing of eight tons of 
manure per acre over forty acres will give a 
greater relative increase in the crop and greater 
value to the manure than a heavier dressing of 
sixteen tons per acre over twenty acres leaving the 
remaining twenty acres unmanured. Actual 
experiments on a small scale have proven this 
statement. Also in plowing under a heavy dress- 
ing of manure there is danger that the manure, by 
breaking the capillary connection of the soil 
with the subsoil may cause the crop to ''burn 
out" in a dry season. For the same reason it is 
not advisable to plow under trashy or coarse 
manure. 

An experiment in manuring in wheat rotations 
carried on for twenty years at the North Dakota 
experiment station demonstrates the cumulative 
effect of manuring. Only six loads of well rotted 
manure was applied per acre to the corn or millet 
in a four year rotation with wheat. The percent- 
age increase in yields of wheat from manuring 
compared with the same rotation without manure 
is given in Table VIII. 



116 



WHEAT 
Table VIII 



Increase in wheat yield due to farm manure 
by periods of five years (1892-1906), Bui. No. 
100 N. D. Exp. Station. 



Manure 




Percent Increase 




Applied to 


First 
Period 


Second Third 
Period Period 


Fourth 
Period 


Average 


Corn 

Millet 

Average 


5.5 
6.1 

5.8 


9.3 21.5 

10.1 1 33.0 

9.7 1 27.2 


12.5* 
3?.2* 
21.3* 


12.2 
19.3 
15.8 



* Three years only. 

The average annual increase in wheat yields 
was nearly 16% due to the application of only 
six loads of manure per acre once in four years, 
and this was on the fertile wheat lands of the Red 
River Valley. 

THE VALUE OF WHEAT STRAW 

Observe from Table V that a ton of wheat 
straw contains about the same amount of plant 
food elements as a ton of farm manure but it is 
difficult to use the straw directly as a fertilizer 
because of its bulky, trashy character. In the 
great wheat producing areas it seems necessary 
to burn a great deal of straw simply to get it out 
of the way. When burning is necessary, it is 
better to spread the straw over the field and burn 
it rather than to burn it in piles. By spreading, 
the ashes will be distributed over the land and 
the nitrogen only will be lost in burning. 

The introduction of a proper rotation of crops 



WHEAT 117 

will largely do away with the necessity of burning 
the straw. Wheat straw has some feeding value 
but perhaps the best use for it is as bedding in 
the stable and in the yards where it may fulfill a 
double purpose; to provide a suitable bed for 
stock and also as an absorbent for the manure, 
especially the liquid excreta of the animals, the 
fertilizing value of which is greater even than that 
of the solid excrement. After being tramped 
and partially decayed, the straw itself makes 
good manure and may be readily incorporated 
with the soil. 

GREEN MANURING WITH SUMMER FALLOWING 

The soils of the Great Plains are usually abund- 
antly rich in mineral plant foods and it is doubtful 
if the application of phosphates or lime is neces- 
sary in order to increase yields, but these same 
soils are and always have been lacking in organic 
matter and the continuous cropping has rapidly 
depleted the natural supply. It has been found 
difficult to rotate crops in semi-arid regions so as 
to restore the organic matter. 

The method of green manuring and partial 
summer fallowing which has been put into prac- 
tice at the Ft. Hays, Kansas experiment station is 
in the judgment of the writer an advantage over 
bare summer fallowing and largely overcomes the 
objections to summer tilling. The plan is to 
plant a fall crop or early spring crop and plow 
it under late in May or early in June, practicing 
a summer fallow with surface cultivation (summer 
tillage) for the balance of the season until seeding 



118 WHEAT 

time. Certain crops adapted to the west are being 
tested for this purpose; the most promising are 
sand vetch and sweet clover for fall seeding and 
field peas for spring seeding. These crops are 
hardy rapid, growers and somewhat drouth re- 
sistent and may be used in part for pasture, thus 
giving some return other than their fertilizing 
value. 

VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS 

Wheat sown directly after green manuring 
with field peas, has not given as high yields as 
when sown after a bare fallow. Sand vetch is 
safer to use because it may be seeded in the fall 
and is ready to plow down early in the spring. 

An experiment in green manuring in wheat 
rotations at the North Dakota experiment station 
indicates, that as the supply of organic matter 
decreases, the benefit from green manuring in- 
creases. This experiment has been carried on for 
twenty years, a crop of field peas or millet being 
plowed down every fourth year. The results of 
green manuring on the succeeding yields of wheat 
compared with the same rotation in which the 
peas and millet crops were harvested is given in 
Table IX. 

Table IX 

Showing the influence of green manuring upon 
wheat yields by periods of five years (1892-1906), 
Bui. No. 100 North Dakota experiment station: 



WHEAT 



119 



Green Manured 

With 


Percent Increase or Decrease 


First 
Period 


Second 
Period 


Third 
Period 


Fourth 
Period 


Average 


Field peas 

Millet 


—9.6* 
0.6 


—6.9* 
—7.0* 


33.2 
10.0 


17.6 
10.5 


8.6 
3 5 






Average 


—4.5* 


—7.0* 


21.6 


14.1 


6.1 



*Decrease. 

The negative results during the first two 
periods are more than off-set by the positive in- 
crease in yields in the last two periods. It should 
be remembered also that this North Dakota 
soil (the typical Red River Valley wheat lands) 
is far richer in organic matter than the average 
soil of the Western Plains. 



DANGER OF GREEN MANURING 

The danger from green manuing is that the 
seed bed will be left too loose the first year with 
a tendency to dry out and injure the crop. Also, 
the wheat is apt to produce too rank a growth of 
straw, the first crop after green manuring. These 
objections may be in part overcome by early 
plowing, subsurface packing and frequent surface 
cultivation in order to hasten the decay ol the 
organic matter, conserve the soil moisture and 
secure a firm, well pulverized condition of the 
seed bed. 

If this method of green manuring can be gen- 
erally adopted, it will solve the problem for a long 
time at least of keeping up the supply of organic 
matter and maintaining the productiveness of 
our western wheat lands. 



120 



WHEAT 



In conclusion, the farmer who carries out a 
proper system of crop rotation, as described in 
these pages, growing wheat on only a part of his 
fields each season, may produce more wheat on 
one-third or one-half of his farm in the next forty 
years than he would produce by continually 
growing wheat on all his land. The crops used in 
rotation will give an additional profit when fed 
to live stock, and if the manure is saved, and 
returned to the soil, with perhaps a little phosphate 
and limestone, as may be required, the fertility 
of the land should be maintained and its produc- 
tiveness increased. Such a practice carried on for 
100 or 1,000 years should give similar results. 




122 



WHEAT 



Chapter X 
WHEAT ON THE PACIFIC COAST 

Washington is the leading wheat producing 
state of the Pacific slope. Up to 1900 California 
exceeded Washington in wheat production. The 
total crop in 1900 was 28,543,628 bushels for 
California and 25,096,661 bushels for Washington. 
In 1912, Washington produced 53,414,000 bushels 
and California only 6,290,000 bushels. The 
exhaustion of California's wheat lands and the 
development of agriculture along more profitable 
lines than grain farming is given as the reason for 
this remarkable falling off in wheat production. 

The present relation of the acreage, for both 
spring and winter wheat, the average yields per 
acre, and total production in the four wheat pro- 
ducing states of the Pacific coast from 1910 to 
1912 are given in the following table: 

Table X 





Spring Wheat 

1 


Winter Wheat 


Total 

Production 

Bushels 


STATE 


Average 

Acreage 

Acres 


Av'ge 

Yield 

per 

Acre 


Average 

Acreage 

Acres 


Av'ge 

Yield 

per 

Acre 


Idaho 

Washington. . . 

Oregon 

California. . . . 


187,333 

1,139,000 

239,667 


25.9 

18.1 
18.4 


342,333 I 28.0 
861,333 25.1 
561,000 24.2 
600,000 17.7 


14,343,000 
43,226,000 
18,052,667 
10,676,667 




1 






Tot'landAv'ge 


1,566,000 


20.8 


2,364,666 


23.8 


86,298,334 



WHEAT 123 

LARGE SIZE OF FARMS 

Wheat farming on the Pacific coast is remark- 
able for the gigantic scale in which it is carried 
on. It is not uncommon for a single farmer to 
grow several thousand acres of wheat each 
year. Some of the larger farms exceed 5,000 acres 
in area. In 1907, R. C. McCroskey, near Gar- 
field, Washington, in the famous Palouse country, 
harvested and threshed 46,000 bushels of wheat 
from a single field of 1,000 acres. This is said to 
be the largest crop of wheat ever grown in one 
field. While Washington has some of the 
largest wheat farms in the world, the very large 
farms are the exception, the average wheat farms 
ranging in size from 160 to 640 acres. In the other 
Pacific slope states the farms average less in 
area than in Washington. 

METHODS IN FARMING 

Wheat raising on the Pacific coast is carried 
on almost entirely by dry farming methods. 
Irrigation is practiced to some extent in Idaho 
and California, but when compared with the dry 
farming area the acreage is very small. Wheat 
is grown continuously on the same land, little 
or no rotation of crops being practiced in the 
wheat growing sections, but the usual method 
now coming into practice is to summer fallow the 
land about every third year. 

Extensive farming and continuous grain crop- 
ping have exhausted the rather limited supply of 
nitrogen and organic matter originally contained 
in most of these semi-arid soils. The result is 



124 WHEAT 

that grain yields are beginning to decrease, and 
wheat farming is becoming less profitable on the 
older lands, especially in California. 

The Pacific coast wheat grower is up against 
the same problems that confront the western 
plains farmer — the conservation of humus and 
nitrogen and the maintenance of the productive- 
ness of his soil. 

In the California experiment station Bulletin 
No. 211, "How to Increase the Wheat Yield,'^ 
Professor G. W. Shaw comments upon past and 
present conditions of wheat farming in California 
as follows: 

"The old methods of grain growing still persist 
in California. They are generally very simple and 
very crude. At first satisfactory returns were 
obtained because of an unusually fertile, virgin 
soil. At the outset there was an annual cropping 
of the land to the cereals with no attempt to 
either rotate crops or restore any of the humus 
that such a system destroys. In order to cover 
as large an acreage as possible the crudest methods 
of culture were practiced. The practice con- 
sisted simply of three or four-inch plowing, broad- 
casting the seed, and harrowing it in. But little 
attention was paid to the selection of pure seed, 
and far too often the growers purchased a second 
or a third grade seed under the false notion that 
anything that would sprout was good enough. 

"The more important changes which have 
taken place since the introduction of the above 
named crude practices have been the replacing 
of the header and stationary thresher by the com- 



WHEAT 125 

bined harvester, and the quite general introduc- 
tion of the practice of summer-fallowing the land. 

''The development of the combined harvester 
has, without doubt, decreased the cost of pro- 
duction where grain is grown upon a large scale, 
but it has at the same time tended to encour- 
age a desultory system of culture, and rendered 
the fields very foul through a general distribution 
of weed seeds, because by the time the grain is 
harvested in this manner practically all the serious 
weeds have fully ripened their seed ; and further, 
the length of time the grain is left in the field 
after maturity has tended to seriously increase 
the loss from shattering by the wind. It is very 
questionable, then, whether the combined effects 
of these undesirable factors have not more than 
offset the decreased cost. 

"The summer fallow (summer tillage) practice 
was introduced for two reasons; first, it was an 
attempt to save as much of two season's precipita- 
tion as possible for the production of a single 
larger crop; second, to clean the land of weeds 
resulting from continued grain culture. The latter 
effect has been largely offset by the use of the com- 
bined harvester. 

'' The shallow preparation of land and the con- 
tinual practice of burning off the straw have had 
a very bad effect upon the humus content of 
the top foot of the soil, which in turn has so 
affected its physical condition, generally speaking, 
as to materially reduce its moisture capacity and 
seriously affect the yield of grain. Further, the 
earlier seeding made possible by the summer 



WHEAT 127 

fallow practice has also reduced the quality of the 
grain, as shown by the analyses of a large number 
of samples of early and late seeded grain. 

''During recent years, mainly as a result of 
the reduction in size of some grain farms, and the 
educational efforts conducted by the university 
of California throughout the state, there has been 
an increase of the depth of plowing on the part of 
some farmers, but in general the same careless 
methods of culture still hold. 

''To summarize, the general effect of the past 
and present methods has been the development 
of a poor physical condition of the land, largely 
a result of the depletion of the humus, until the 
soil refuses to produce profitable yields of the 
commonly grown varieties of wheat under the 
old system of farming." 

CULTURE METHODS IN WASHINGTON AND 
OREGON 

The culture methods practiced in Washington 
and Oregon are perhaps little if any better than 
those in California, but the newer lands in these 
states have not yet begun to show the decrease 
in yield which will surely follow continuous grain 
growing. The experiment stations and some of 
the farmers are trying to solve the problems of 
restoring the humus and soil nitrogen and thus 
maintain the soil fertility. Experiments indicate 
that this may be accomplished by green manuring, 
rotation of crops, and deeper tillage; but it is a 
difficult matter to rotate crops in these exclusively 
grain raising areas, also the crops which are hardy 



128 WHEAT 

and well adapted for green manuring have not 
yet been fully determined. 

INCREASING THE YIELD BY BETTER CULTURE 

Deep plowing compared with shallow plowing 
for wheat at the experiment station farm at 
Davis, California in forty trials gave an average 
increased yield of 37.4%. At the San Joaquin 
valley station it was found that adding humus to 
the soil by green manuring with rye and vetch 
increased the average yield 244%, compared with 
growing wheat after wheat, and the green ma- 
nuring plot gave 62%) greater yield than the bare 
summer fallow. 

The relative yields were given as follows:* 



Yield psr Acre, Bushels, 
Treatment Average for 1909 and 1910 

Wheat after wheat 15.7 

Bare fallow 33.3 

Rye and vetch (turned under) 54.0 

Rye alone (turned under) .52.3 

Professor Shaw concludes from these and other 
experiments that by means of deeper plowing and 
better culture methods, together with the growing 
of green manuring crops during the winter, the 
average acre yield of wheat in California may be 
doubled and at the same time the soil rendered 
more fertile. The use of commercial fertilizers 
did not as a rule give much benefit in the_Cali- 
fornia experiments. 



'California Experiment Station Bulletin No. 211. 



WHEAT 129 

CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

Scientific tillage to conserve the soil moisture 
and prepare a suitable seed and root bed is just 
as important in dry farming on the Pacific coast 
as on the western plains, and the same principles 
apply though the practice may vary somewhat. 

Professor Geo. Severance of the Washington 
experiment station gives the following summary of 
methods for best dry farming practice: 

"1. Keep up the supply of humus by chopping 
in all the straw and stubble available. 

"2. Disk the stubble before the fall and winter 
rains begin, to absorb the precipitation as quickly 
and completely as possible. 

"3. As soon as the soil is fit to work in spring 
work up two to four inches of loose, dry soil to 
hold moisture. 

"4. Follow the plow as closely as possible 
with a subsurface packer. 

"5. Harrow wheat in spring as soon after the 
soil is fit to work as the wheat is well rooted. 

''Successful dryland tillage does not call so much 
for an increased amount of labor as for labor 
properly appHed." 

VARIETIES TO GROW 

Club head wheat (Triticum sativum compac- 
tum), a sub-species of common wheat (Triticum 
sativum vulgare), is the type most largely grown 
in the Pacific coast states. This is a soft, white 
wheat not so valuable for milling as the wheat 
of the western plains, for it is necessary to blend 

9 



130 WHEAT 

it with hard wheat in miUing in order to make 
good flour. The club wheat is grown because of 
its pecuHar characteristics which make it suitable 
to the climatic conditions and to the harvesting 
methods commonly practiced. The climate being 
always dry at harvest time, the grain is left in 
the field until it is fully ripe, when it is harvested 
with the ''combine'' which harvests and threshes 
the wheat at a single operation. It is desirable 
therefore that the wheat should stand erect and 
not shatter. The Club Head is peculiar in this 
respect. It has a very compact spike without 
beards and a stiff, short straw. It is a rapid- 
growing, early-maturing, erect-growing, non-shat- 
tering variety which is well adapted to the con- 
ditions. It is also hardy and a good yielder. 
Hence it has held its place as the most popular 
variety in spite of its poor milling quality. 

In the Pacific coast states, wheat varieties are 
classed as ''spreading" or "erect," referring to the 
early habit of growth of the plants. Certain 
varieties, largely grown in the central and western 
states, including nearly all the varieties of com- 
mon wheat, spread out or stool for sometime before 
shooting. These varieties do not cover and shade 
the ground quickly and do not check weed 
growth. 

The "erect" growing varieties of the club head 
type shoot up quickly and soon shade the soil 
and check weed growth, thus the wheat keeps 
ahead of the weeds. This is an important factor 
in wheat culture in the Pacific coast states, be- 
cause of the foul, weedy condition of the wheat 



WHEAT 131 

land caused by continuous cropping with grain 
which is harvested with the ''combine" that 
scatters the weed seeds again. Hence the " spread- 
ing" varieties are not well adapted to the pre- 
vailing conditions and the general culture methods. 
The ''spreading" varieties, such as Turkey Red, 
Crimean and Gold Coin are grown in limited area 
by irrigation, and such varieties may be suited 
to small farming where rotation of crops is prac- 
ticed and where the wheat is harvested with the 
binder. 

WINTER OR SPRING WHEAT 

Winter wheat is grown almost exclusively in 
California. In Washington and Oregon the areas 
devoted to spring wheat and winter wheat are 
about equal. There seems to be no settled prac- 
tice among the wheat growers, either as regards 
season of planting or variety grown. Thus winter 
wheat may be grown largely in one locality, while 
an adjacent locality, grows spring wheat. 
Club and blue stem are the principal spring 
varieties; winter fife and Turkey are the common 
winter varieties. 

WHEAT IMPROVEMENT 

A successful attempt has been made by the 
Washington experiment station to improve the 
varieties of wheat by crossing the soft, erect 
spring club varieties with the hard winter wheat 
of the Turkey type to secure hardy, erect winter 
varieties which shall be non-shattering and of 
better milling quality than the original club wheat. 



132 WHEAT 

Several hydrids have thus been produced and 
fixed in type, which appear to give the desired 
results. Improved seed of these varieties is now 
being distributed to the farmers. Wheat improve- 
ment is also being brought about by the farmers 
through selection and grading of seed wheat. 

FARMING PRACTICE AND PROFITS 

The farming practice in use on the Pacific coast 
wheat farms, while not as thorough as it might 
be, is modern. Large machinery is used in tilling 
the soil. Engine plows are common. The harvest- 
ing is done with the combination harvester and 
thresher, which is propelled usually by thirty-two 
horses or by a traction engine. Binders are 
seldom used. The fertile soil producing large 
yields and the cheap and extensive methods of 
culture have made Pacific coast wheat farming 
very profitable. The cost of raising and market- 




1 ig. ui.-Lciige machinery is used in tilling the soil. 



WHEAT 133 

ing wheat in the Palouse country is given as 
26 to 40 cents per bushel, depending on the season, 
the method of farming and the distance from 
market. An even lower cost of production is re- 
ported for the Great Bend country and other 
wheat growing areas in Washington. 

The average export price of wheat for the five 
years, 1906-1910, was eighty-fivf^ and one-half 
cents per bushel.* The average total wheat 
marketed by the four states per year for four 
years 1906 to 1909 was 49,493,041 bushels. The 
wheat is all handled in sacks. There are no grain 
elevators. In their place, ware houses are used 
and open platforms on which the grain is piled 
to await shipment. 

In 1906 there were in operation in Oregon, 
Washington and Idaho, 241 flour mills with a 
combined output of 40,620 barrels of flour per day. 
Nearly two-thirds of the wheat produced is used 
for home consumption in the coast states or in 
the adjacent mountain states. The excess is 
exported largely to China and Japan. The total 
exports of wheat from Paciflc ports in the United 
States averaged 29,000,000 bushels per year for 
five years, 1906 to 1910. 



^United States Bureau of Statistics Bulletin No. 89. 



134 WHEAT 

Chapter XI 
WHEAT GROWING IN CANADA 

A PART OF THE GREAT PLAIN 

" The western provinces of Canada are really one 
vast prairie which is included in the great plains re- 
gion. Commencing some fifty miles east of Winni- 
peg this prairie extends westward over 800 miles to 
the foothills of the Rockies. It is really a series 
of three great plains, viz: (1) The Red River 
valley, a low, flat prairie, 800 feet above the sea, 
7,000 square miles in area, extending from about 
the 96th to the 100th meridian, embracing the 
richest wheat lands of Manitoba. (2) The middle 
prairie extending from about the 100th to the 108th 
meridian, with an average elevation of 1,600 feet, 
about 105,000 square miles in area, one-half of 
which is fairly level open prairie and mostly 
good fertile soil. (3) The third steppe' extending 
from the 108th meridian to the Rockies, including 
Alberta and the western portion of Saskatchewan, 
average elevation 3,000 feet, area 134,000 square 
miles, topography more varied than the second 
plain but containing much fertile land."* 

The prairie soils of western Canada are uni- 
formly rich in plant food, especially in nitrogen. 
The large proportion of organic matter and humus 
gives these soils great moisture holding capacity 
and an agreeable physical condition favorable 
to the action of soil bacteria and rapid plant 
growth. Actual determinations by Prof. Frank 

*Hand Book of Canada, 1897. 



WHEAT 135 

T. Shutt, the government chemist at Ottawa, of 
samples of Red River valley soil gave an organic 
matter content exceeding 26% in black, heavy 
loam taken near Morris, and over 11% in black 
sandy loam taken at Brandon, Manitoba. Six 
other Red River valley samples gave an organic 
matter content varying from 11.44 to 21.54%. 
In Saskatchewan twelve typical samples from 
various parts of the province gave an organic 
matter content varying from 5.54% in heavy clay 
loam near Maple Creek, to 14.23% in grayish- 
black loam near Tisdale. The other samples gave 
percentages varying from 10.20 to 13.93%. 

In Alberta the organic content of the soil is 
more variable but averages nearly as high as in 
Saskatchewan, the variation for nine typical 
samples being 5.89% in a dark-gray sandy loam 
at Lethbridge, to 17.83% in a black sandy loam 
at Lac la Nonne. The percentage of phosphoric 
acid, potash and lime averaged very high in all 
of the soils.* 

Portions of Manitoba and Saskatchewan abound 
in lakes and ponds. Some areas are too flat and 
need drainage before the land can be farmed suc- 
cessfully. The soil is of glacial origin, and as pre- 
viously stated it is usually very fertile and of great 
depth. It will not ''wear out'' with a few years 
of cropping, but there are other factors of un- 
certainty which may greatly reduce production 
in unfavorable seasons. The greatest of these are 
drouth and early frosts. The damage from early 
frosts may be in part overcome by planting early 

*Department of Agriculture of Canada Bulletin No. 6. 




bo 



WHEAT 137 

maturing varieties of wheat which have been 
bred and adapted to the dimate and soil. The 
injurious effects of drouth may be largely pre- 
vented by clean summer fallowing and by prac- 
ticing scientific methods of culture adapted to dry 
farming. Irrigation is practiced to some extent 
in Alberta, and limited areas may be irrigated 
in other provinces, but crops are largely grown 
by dry farming methods and this will continue 
since it will never be possible to irrigate any large 
part of the tillable lands of this vast region. 

The Canadian west from the 100th meridian 
to the mountains is a " dry '' country. The rainfall 
is variable, ranging from 9 to 30 inches for differ- 
ent years and different sections of the country. 
According to Stupart the total annual precipita- 
tion for Saskatchewan and Alberta averages less 
than fourteen inches and 17.34 inches is given as 
the average annual rainfall of Manitoba. 

Other rainfall data is given as follows: Annual 
at Edmonton (13 years) 18.44 inches; at Regina, 
(7 years) 14.77 inches; at Prince Albert, 17.95 
inches. Prince Albert, in Latitude 53°-10' is the 
farthest north point in the Saskatchewan valley 
where wheat is grown to any extent. The average 
annual rainfall at each of the several government 
experimental farms for four years, 1908-1911 is 
computed as follows : 

Inches 

Brandon, S. Manitoba 17.62 

Indian Head, S. Saskatchewan 18.63 

Lethbridge, S. Alberta 13.55 

Lacombe, C. Alberta 16.70 

The total average rainfall for the six growing 



138 WHEAT 

months, April 1 to October 1 for twenty-one years, 
at Indian Head is given as 12.93 inches — almost 
as great as the average rainfall at Ottawa for the 
same period. Thus while the annual rainfall is 
deficient, judging by eastern standards, there is 
this advantage — about 70% of the rainfall comes 
during the growing season. June and July are 
usually the months of greatest rainfall. 

WHEAT GROWING AREAS 

Prof. Charles E. Saunders, cerealist of the 
dominion experimental farms, has divided Canada 
into six chief wheat producing sections as follows: 

1. The Maritime Provinces — Nova Scotia, 
Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick — Not 
very much wheat is grown in this section^ — mostly 
spring sown— kernels plump but rather soft and 
starchy — best varieties — Preston, Huron, Stanley, 
Pringle's Champlain, Red Fife and Marquis. 

2. Quebec and Northern Ontario: Small acreage — 
mostly spring wheats — medium hard and good 
quality for milling — best varieties — Huron, Pres- 
ton, Bishop, Marquis, Red Fife and White Fife. 

3. Southern Ontario: 561,000 acres in 1912— 
mostly winter wheat — large, plump grain but 
soft and quite starchy — best varieties — Dawson's 
Golden Chaff (beardless), Turkey Red (bearded), 
Egyptian Amber and Tasmania Red. 

4. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern and 
Central A Iberta : A large territory — large acreage — 
mostly spring wheat — hard, glutinous kernels — 
excellent quality for milling — best varieties — 
Marquis and Prelude (very early), Huron, Pres- 



WHEAT 139 

ton, Pringle's Champlain, Bishop, Chelsea, Red 
Fife and White Fife. 

5. Southern Alberta: The great winter wheat 
section of Canada; (some spring wheat grown) — 
produces the best quahty of hard red winter wheat, 
unexcelled for milling — yields large — best vari- 
eties — Turkey Red (bearded), Kharkof (bearded), 
and Ghirka (beardless). Seed of these varieties, 
secured from the Kansas experiment station in 
1907 and 1908. The old "Alberta Red," still 
extensively grown, is a Turkey Red wheat but not 
so well bred as the new importations. 

6. British Columbia: Small acreage as yet — 
variable climate — winter and spring varieties 
grown. 

VARIETIES 

In the classification of wheat growing areas 
given above the varieties recommended for sowing 
are mainly in the order of their highest yields. 
The oldest variety of wheat in Canada and the 
variety which is most widely grown and most 
highly esteemed is Red Fife. This wheat is 
remarkable for its productiveness, for its hard 
quality and high milling value, and for its power of 
adapting itself to varying conditions of soil and 
climate. Fife wheat was originated or discovered 
by an Ontario farmer, Mr. David Fife, after whom 
it is named. In 1842, Mr. Fife obtained a small 
sample of wheat from a friend in Glasgow, Scot- 
land. It came in the spring, and not knowing 
whether it was a winter or spring variety, he 
planted some of it. It proved to be a winter wheat 



140 WHEAT 

and never ripened, except three heads which ap- 
parently grew from a single seed. The grain from 
these heads was saved and planted the next 
season and the product was saved and planted 
again, and from it sprang the variety of wheat 
known all over Canada and the northern states as 
Red Fife or Scotch Fife. 

EARLY MATURING VARIETIES ESSENTIAL 

The Red Fife wheat had many points of excel- 
lence, but for growing in the more northern 
climates it had one serious fault — it was rather 
too late in maturing, and in seasons of early frosts 
the grain was likely to be injured and reduced 
in yield and value. This condition caused a de- 
mand on the part of the Canadian growers for 
an earlier ripening wheat. Dr. William Saunders, 
director of the dominion experimental farms, met 
this demand by importing early maturing varieties 
of wheat from northern Russia and India. These 
varieties proved to be inferior in quality and yield, 
but by crossing them with Red Fife, a number of 
new varieties have been produced which are 
earlier than the Red Fife, and in some cases 
nearly as good in quality and which produce large 
yields and are well adapted for growing in the 
western provinces. Several of these varieties 
such as Preston, Huron, Bishop and Stanley are 
well known throughout Canada and the northern 
states. More recent introductions are the Marquis 
and Prelude, which are proving to be the earliest 
and hardiest of the SaundersVarieties. 

In thus producing these early hardy varieties 



WHEAT 141 

Dr. Saunders has rendered a most valuable 
service to the wheat growers of the northwest, 
which not only makes wheat farming much more 
sure and profitable but it has allowed for the ex- 
tension of wheat culture to more northern lati- 
tudes than was ever dreamed of before these 
hybrid wheats were introduced. It is reported 
that Ladoga wheat, one of the early Russian 
varieties, has been matured at Ft. Vermillion in 
latitude 58°-30'— 600 miles north of the Montana- 
Alberta boundary line, and 591 miles north of 
Winnipeg. A sample of sixty-two pound wheat 
was produced at Ft. Simpson, 818 miles north 
of Winnipeg. 

DURUM WHEAT 

Durum wheat is grown to a limited extent in 
Canada. It yields well in the eastern provinces 
and is particularly productive in the drier climates. 
It is hardier and more drouth resistant than or- 
dinary wheat and often out-yields the common 
wheat where it matures well. The durum varieties 
are later in maturing than the earlier varieties of 
the common type. The durum wheat is unpopular 
with millers for flour making because of its extreme 
hardness and the yellowish color of the flour. It 
should be grown only for a special purpose or 
market and in considerable area so that it may be 
handled by separate elevators or in carload lots. 
Durum wheat usually sells at a less price than 
good milling wheat of similar grade and quality. 
Kubanka and Wild Goose are standard varieties 
and recommended for general planting. 



142 WHEAT 

WINTER WHEAT VARIETIES 

The winter wheat districts of Canada are quite 
distinct and Hmited in area. There are two prin- 
cipal areas: southern Ontario and southern 
Alberta. The climate of southern Ontario is 
quite humid and not favorable to producing a 
good quality of hard wheat. Soft or semi-hard 
wheats succeed best, such as Dawson's Golden 
Chaff, Gold Coin, Early Red Clawson, Red 
Velvet Chaff and Red Chief ; but the Turkey and 
Kharkof varieties are also grown and produce 
a better quality of grain but give less yield as a 
rule than the other sorts. The climate of south- 
ern Alberta is quite dry and the winters are long, 
but the severe cold which prevails farther east in 
Manitoba and Saskatchewan is moderated in 
Alberta by the warm winds (''Chinook" winds) 
which blow over the mountains from the south- 
west. 

The area which is most affected and which is 
best adapted for growing winter wheat lies along 
the base of the mountains and extends from the 
Montana line north to Calgary, a distance of 200 
miles, and varies in width from 100 to 200 miles. 
In this favored area large yields of an excellent 
quality of hard red winter wheat are produced. 
This wheat has been given a market grade and 
is called ''Alberta Red." 

The original "Alberta Red" was simply Turkey 
wheat, the seed of which was imported from south- 
ern Nebraska in 1901. This stock was impure 
and mixed as the writer discovered during his 
visit to Alberta in 1907, where he was sent by the 



WHEAT 143 

state of Kansas to study Alberta wheat with the 
purpose of importing seed wheat to Kansas. 
Because the wheat was mixed and of scrub breed- 
ing, I did not recommend the importation of 
"Alberta Red" seed wheat into Kansas notwith- 
standing its excellent quality, since our best 
Kansas varieties were superior in purity and breed- 
ing. I called the attention of W. H. Fairfield, 
superintendent of the southern Alberta experi- 
mental farm to this condition, and advised that 
he secure some of our Improved Kansas Seed 
Wheat, which he did. 

The Kansas bred Turkey and Kharkof proved 
to be superior to the best ''Alberta Red", pro- 
ducing from seven to ten bushels larger yields 
per acre in the first trials, thus demonstrating 
the importance of pure breeding. (See annual 
report of southern Alberta experimental farm for 
1909.) Seed of these pure bred Kansas strains 
has been widely distributed in Alberta, so these 
wheats are now grown quite generally throughout 
the province. 

WORK OF PROFESSOR ZAVITZ 

Attention has already been called to the work 
of Dr. Saunders in producing earlier maturing 
varieties of wheat by hydridization and selection. 
This breeding work is being continued at several 
Canadian experiment stations. Doubtless, the 
durum wheats may be improved and made earlier 
by selection and breeding. This work is already 
being attempted by the agricultural college at 
Guelph, Ontario, which college under the direction 



144 WHEAT 

of Prof. C. A. Zavitz has done a great amount of 
work in seed grading and seed selection. Profes- 
sor Zavitz has shown by a large number of experi- 
ments with many varieties that the selection of the 
larger and heavier wheat kernels for seed has al- 
most invariably given the largest yields. This work 
has established the importance of grading seed 
wheat and — has caused the farmers to fan and 
grade their seed wheat more carefully, which in the 
judgment of the writer, is one of the reasons for the 
increased acre-yield in Canada, noted for the past 
few seasons. 

The grading of seed grain and the planting of the 
heavy seed is perhaps more necessary in western 
Canada than in the states because of the liabiHty 
to injury of the grain by early frosts. The lighter, 
shrunken kernels are naturally the ones which are 
most likely to have been injured by frost. The im- 
provement of seed wheat and other seed grain has 
also been greatly promoted by the Canadian 
Seed Growers Association which was organized in 
1904. This association consists of farmers who 
desire to make a speciality of growing on their 
own farms, one or more varieties of ''high class" 
seed under the expert direction of the government 
experiment station, for the purpose of increasing 
and distributing the better seed by sale to other 
growers. 

The association had 200 operating members in 
1910. A large amount of the best seed of all kinds 
of crops is grown and distributed in this way. 
The association holds annual meetings which are 
largely attended. 



146 WHEAT 

Chapter XII 
CULTURE METHODS 

This chapter will relate largely to spring 
wheat, since it is the type most largely grown. 
The growing of wheat in the eastern provinces is 
comparatively limited and of relatively small im- 
portance. The grain is grown in rotation with 
other crops and in connection with the raising of 
livestock. The culture methods pursued are 
similar to those adapted to the eastern states. 

The great wheat fields are in western Canada 
where there are millions of acres of new land 
available for wheat growing, not yet under cultiva- 
tion. This great area is being rapidly settled. 
Millions of acres of prairie sod have been broken 
in the last ten years. Millions more will be 
broken in the next ten years. It is possible and 
profitable to use large machinery in the wheat 
farming of west Canada. Here on the wide 
prairies the big engine plows, the large harrows 
and disks, and the big twelve and fourteen foot 
drills can be used to the greatest advantage. 
The size of the machinery used should suit the 
size of the farm. The 160-acre farmer may use 
his sulky plow and two or three horse harrow, 
but farming on a large scale requires the use of 
large machinery and strong power. On the larger 
farms, four, six and eight horse teams and ma- 
chinery to match is or should be the rule, and this 
method should bring the greatest profit. Many of 
the new settlers must necessarily begin in a small 
way because they are limited as to capital and 



148 WHEAT 

equipment. It is important, therefore, that they 
should begin right and make all their work count 
towards producing good crops. The success or 
failure of a new settler may often depend upon the 
method employed in the preparation of the land 
for the first crop. Hence, the question of breaking 
is of the utmost importance. 

BREAKING PRAIRIE SOD 

New settlers as a rule are anxious to sow every 
acre possible, regardless of how or when the break- 
ing was done. Breaking done before July 1, 
while the soil is moist and in good plowing con- 
dition will usually produce a good crop of wheat, 
or other small grain the following season; but 
as a rule such land will fail to produce a profitable 
crop the second season after breaking because of 
the dry, undecayed and unfavorable physical 
condition of the soil. Sod broken after July 1st 
will usually remain dry and unrotted and the 
planting of late breaking, the first season after 
breaking, often results in crop failure and such 
land may remain in bad physical condition and 
unproductive for several seasons, if continuously 
cropped. 

BREAKING AND BACKSETTING 

Early shallow breaking and backsetting 2 to 4 
inches deeper than the breaking is the best and 
most successful method of preparing new land 
for wheat on the western Canadian prairies. In 
some areas where the sod is thin and the soil is 
light, single early breaking 5 or 6 inches deep, 



WHEAT 



149 



followed by thorough disking may give good re- 
sults. 

Writing on this subject Prof. Angus Mackay, 
superintendent of the experimental farm for 
southern Saskatchewan, discusses ''breaking and 
backsetting" as follows: 

''Breaking and backsetting means the plowing 
of the prairie sod as shallow as possible before the 
June or early July rains are over, and in August 
or September, when the sod will have become 
thoroughly rotted by the rains and hot sun, 
plowing two or three inches deeper in the same 
direction and then harrowing to make a fine and 
firm seed bed. From land prepared in this way 
two good crops of wheat may be expected. The 
first crop will be heavy and the stubble, if cut 
high at harvest time, will retain sufficient snow to 




_^ 



Fig. 35. — A first-class job of breaking. 



150 WHEAT 

produce the moisture required, even in the driest 
spring, to germinate the seed for the next crop. 
The stubble-land can readily be burned on a day 
in the spring with a warm, steady wind and the 
seed may be sown with or without further cultiva- 
tion. In a case where the grass roots have not 
been entirely killed by the backsetting, a shallow 
cultivation before seeding will be found advan- 
tageous but as a rule the harrowing of the land with 
a drag-harrow after seeding will be sufficient. 

''The principal objection urged to 'breaking and 
backsetting' is heavy work for the teams required 
in backsetting, but if the disking required to 
reduce deep-breaking and the other cultivation 
that must be done to obtain a second crop, 
be taken into consideration, it must be conceded 
that in the end 'breaking and backsetting' is the 
cheaper and better method. 

" When two crops have been taken from new land 
it should be summer-fallowed." 

In his "Methods of Preparing Soil for Grain 
Crops,'' Professor MacKay says: 

"In view of the fact that every year brings 
to the northwest many new settlers who are un- 
acquainted with the methods of breaking up and 
preparing new land for crops, a few suggestions 
with regard to this important work may not be 
amiss. 

"In all sections where the sod is thick and 
tough, breaking and backsetting should be done; 
while in the districts where bluffs abound and the 
sod is thin, deep breaking is all that is necessary. 

"The former is generally applicable to the 



WHEAT 151 

southern and western portions, and the latter to 
the northeastern part of Saskatchewan, where 
the land is more or less covered with bluffs." 

"The sod should be turned over as thin as 
possible, (2 to 3 inches deep) . When the breaking 
is completed (which should not be later than the 
second week in July), rolling will hasten the rotting 
process and permit backsetting to commence early 
in August. 

''Backsetting is merely turning the sod back 
to its original place, and at the same time bringing 
up two or three inches of fresh soil to cover it. 
The plowing should be done in the same direction 
as the breaking and the same width of furrow 
turned. Two inches below the breaking is con- 
sidered deep enough, but three to four inches will 
give better results. 

"After backsetting, the soil cannot be made too 
fine, and the use of a disk or Randall harrow to 
cut up every piece of unrotted sod, will complete 
the work.'' 

DEEP BREAKING 

"Deep breaking, which in some sections of the 
country is the only practicable way of preparing 
new land, and which is, unfortunately, done in 
some instances where 'breaking and backsetting' 
would give much more satisfactory results, con- 
sists in the turning over of the sod as deeply as 
possible, usually from four to five inches. When 
the sod has rotted, the top soil should be worked 
and made as fine as possible. The use of the 
harrow or disk will fill up all irregularities on the 
surface and make a fine, even seed-bed. 



152 WHEAT 

"Whether the land is broken shallow or deep, 
it is necessary to have the work completed early, 
so as to take advantage of the rains which usually 
come in June or early in July. These rains cause 
the sod to rot, and without them, or if the plowing 
is done after they are over, the sod remains in the 
same condition as when turned, and no amount of 
work will make up for the loss/' 

CLEAN SUMMER FALLOW 

While there are some objections to summer 
tilling land, such as soil drifting, overproduction 
of straw in wet seasons and waste of soil fertility, 
yet in a dry climate and a country given largely 
to grain raising, there does not seem to be any 
other practical method of keeping the land in 
productive condition. 

The principal advantages of summer tilling 
are: The conservation of soil moisture, the eradica- 
tion of weeds (the soil becomes foul with weeds by 
continuous grain cropping), the preparation of 
the land for wheat when other work is not pressing, 
the availability of summer tilled land for early 
spring seeding, and the ability to secure two good 
crops after the fallow with only a small amount 
of cultivation beside that required to complete 
the fallow. 

METHODS OF FALLOWING 

Different methods are practiced in the prepara- 
tion of fallow land. When the plan has been to con- 
serve the June and July rains and prevent the 
growth and seeding of weeds, success is almost 



WHEAT 153 

sure; but when the plowing is done late and cul- 
tivation is neglected, failure is likely to result. 
Writing on methods of summer fallowing, 
Professor MacKay says in the report referred to 
above: 

"The true worth of properly prepared fallows 
has been clearly demonstrated in past years in 
every district of Saskatchewan. 

"The work of preparing land for crop by fallow- 
ing is carried on in so many ways in different parts 
of the country, that perhaps a few words on some 
of the methods employed may be of use to at least 
some of the new settlers. 

"It has been observed in some parts of Sas- 
katchewan that the land to be fallowed is not, as 
a rule, touched until the weeds are full grown and 
in many cases, bearing fully matured seed. It is 
then plowed. 

"By this method, which no doubt saves work 
at the time, the very object of a summer-fallow is 
defeated. In the first place, moisture is not con- 
served because the land has been pumped dry by 
the heavy growth of weeds; and, secondly, in- 
stead of using the summer-fallow as a means of 
eradicating weeds, a foundation is laid for years 
of labor and expense by the myriads of foul seeds 
turned under. 

"The endless fields of yellow-flowered weeds, 
generally Ball Mustard (Neslia paniculata), testify 
to the indifferent work done in many districts, and, 
while no weed is more easily eradicated by a good 
system of fallows, there is no weed that is more 
easily propagated or takes greater advantage of 



154 WHEAT 

poor work on fallows or on fall or spring cultivation. 

''Fallows that have been plowed for the first 
time after the first of July, and especially after 
July 15, have never given good results; and the 
plan too frequently followed of waiting till weeds 
are full grown, and often ripe, then plowing them 
under with the idea of enriching the soil, is a 
method that cannot be too earnestly condemned. 

''In the first place, after the rains are over in 
June or early in July, as they usually are, no 
amount of work, whether deep or shallow plow- 
ing, or surface cultivation, can put moisture into 
the soil. The rain must fall on the first plowing 
and be conserved by surface cultivation. 

"Weeds, when allowed to attain their full 
growth, take from the soil, all the moisture put 
there by the June rains, and plowing under weeds 
with their seeds ripe or nearly so, is adding a 
thousand-fold to the myriads already in the soil, 
and does not materially enrich the land. 

"Packers are without doubt most useful imple- 
ments on the farm and where from any cause, the 
soil is loose, they should be used. They are, 
however, expensive implements and within the 
means of comparatively few of the new settlers. 
Fortunately, early plowing and frequent shallow 
cultivation may be depended upon to produce 
almost equally satisfactory results in the majority 
of cases." 

CULTIVATION OF STUBBLE 

"When farmers summer-fallow one-third of 
their cultivated land each year, as they should, 
one-half of each year's crop will be on stubble. 



WHEAT 155 

For wheat, the best preparation of this land is to 
burn the stubble on the first warm, windy day in 
the spring, and either cultivate shallow before 
seeding or give one or two strokes of the harrow 
after seeding, the object being to form a mulch to 
conserve whatever moisture may be in the soil, 
until the commencement of the June rains/' 

FALL PLOWING 

''With regard to fall plowing it may be said 
that, as a rule, on account of short seasons and dry 
soil, very little work can possibly be done in the 
fall; but if the stubble-land is in a condition to 
plow and the stubble is not too long, that portion 
intended for oats and barley may be plowed, if 
time permits. 

"It is, however, a mistake to turn over soil in 
a lumpy or dry condition, as nine times out of ten 
it will remain in the same state until May or June, 
with insufficient moisture to properly germinate 
the seed, and the crop will very likely be overtaken 
by frost/' 

The writer would suggest the discontinuing of 
stubble burning as advocated by Professor 
Mac Kay. Better disk thoroughly and leave 
stubble on the field. 

Professor MacKay urges strongly that "early 
and thorough work on fallows is absolutely neces- 
sary to success." He has tested several methods 
and recommends as the best methods : Single deep 
plowing, seven to eight inches deep, before the 
last of June, followed by surface cultivation 
during the growing season sufficient to destroy 



156 WHEAT 

weeds and conserve soil moisture. The next best 
method and perhaps the best and cheapest in 
some soils and some seasons is the ''double plow- 
ing method": plowing deep (6 to 8 inches) before 
July 1, giving some surface cultivation during 
July and August and plowing rather shallow, 
(4 to 5 inches) immediately after harvest, after 
which the soil should receive such harrowing and 
packing as may be required to prepare a favorable 
seed bed. 

The author would suggest also the testing of 
the listing method of preparing summer fallow 
discussed in these pages (see page 000) and which 
has been found so well adapted to dry farming con- 
ditions in the western states, viz., substitute listing 
in place of plowing in the "double plowing 
method." 







Fig. '6b. — i ne lar liung wheat neids ol western Laiiada. 



WHEAT 157 

Chapter XIII 
ROTATION OF CROPS 

Clover and alfalfa are grown successfully in 
eastern Canada and in southern Manitoba and 
Saskatchewan as are also the grasses — western 
rye grass, timothy and Bromus inermis. Alfalfa 
may be grown successfully also, in western 
Canada. 

Wheat has given nearly as high yields at the 
southern Saskatchewan experimental farm when 
grown after field peas or sand vetch as when 
planted on summer fallow. Actual tests at the 
experimental farm at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, 
show that the soil which had been cropped twenty- 
two years with grains had lost nearly one-third 
of its total nitrogen, determined to a depth of 
eight inches, compared with the adjacent virgin 
prairie. Doubtless as the land becomes older 
the legume crops will be used more extensively 
in rotation with wheat, and the peas and vetch 
may be plowed under for green manure with 
good results if the plowing is not done too late. 
It is not advisable to plow the ground when very 
dry and cloddy. For some time, while the land is 
new, the occasional bare summer fallow will 
doubtless be the most practicable rotation and give 
the best results. 

OTHER POINTS ON SEEDING SPRING WHEAT 

It is important to seed wheat as early in the 
spring as the soil and season will permit, in order 
to insure maturing before frost. This will not 



158 WHEAT 

usually admit of spring plowing but compels fall 
preparation of the soil and early spring disking 
of stubble land. 

The best and usual method is to drill the grain, 
seeding quite shallow one and one-half to two and 
one-half inches deep. The best amount of seed 
to plant varies for the different areas and climates. 
Six pecks per acre is a common amount to sow in 
the eastern provinces, and four pecks per acre in 
the drier western provinces. Less seed is required 
on the drier lands. As little as two and three pecks 
per acre is sometimes seeded on summer fallow, or 
in a favorable seed bed. 

CULTURE OF WINTER WHEAT 

In his annual report for 1908 Prof. W. H. Fair- 
field, superintendent of the southern Alberta 
experimental farm, gives some suggestions and 
information regarding the culture of winter wheat 
as follows: 

PREPARATION OF THE LAND 

" If sod is to be used, it should be broken in May 
and June, while the soil is moist and before the 
rainy season is over. May breaking usually gives 
better results than June breaking. The sod 
should be rolled or flattened down as fast as it is 
broken to facilitate the rotting process. It is the 
custom to break three and one-half to four inches 
deep and prepare a seed bed by the use of a disk, 
drag harrow and float. The float should be fol- 
lowed immediately with the harrow, for evapora- 
tion takes place very rapidly from the land when 



WHEAT 159 

the surface is left too smooth. If the floating is 
done just before seeding, the seed-drill will, of 
course, roughen the surface. A light harrowing 
immediately after seeding is advisable. 

BACKSETTING 

"Although it is not customary to backset in 
this district, it is a practice that cannot be too 
highly recommended. When backsetting is to be 
done, the sod should be broken as shallow as 
practicable and immediately rolled or flattened 
down by a weighted float. The earlier the break- 
ing after the grass has started growth, the better 
will be the results. In the latter part of July or 
early in August the land is again plowed (with 
stubble bottom plows), about two to three inches 
deeper than it was broken. A seed bed can then 
often be prepared by the use of the harrow only, 
but a disk should be used if the condition of the 
ground requires it. Special attention should be 
called to the importance of harrowing each day's 
plowing at night before leaving the field. If an 
engine is used, the harrow should be attached to 
the plow, or if horses are used on a sulky or gang 
plow, one section of a harrow should be attached 
so that the land is harrowed as fast as it is turned. 
In fact, this practice of harrowing land immed- 
iately after it is plowed should always be followed. 
Too much stress cannot be laid on this point. 

TIME TO sow 

''Although our results for this season would 
indicate that September 1, is the best date to sow, 



160 WHEAT 

this is one of the questions that will require some 
further years experience and observation before 
a reliable opinion can be offered." (Later tests 
gave results favoring earlier seeding, August 15 to 
September 1, the best dates.) 

QUANTITY OF SEED TO SOW 

"This, as well as the proper time to sow, is a 
point about which we have not sufficient data at 
hand to draw very satisfactory conclusions. It is 
reasonably safe to assume that thin sowing will 
fill better in a dry season, while in a normal or 
wet season, medium to heavy seedings will fill 
equally well, besides producing a larger yield. It is 
not wise to go to extremes either way. Thirty 
to sixty pounds or forty-five to sixty pounds is 
probably the approximate amount of seed to sow 
per acre. 

TREATING FOR SMUT 

"Winter wheat should be treated for smut 
just as conscientiously as is spring grain. Either 
the formalin or bluestone method is satisfactory, 
providing that the work is done carefully. Very 
smutty grain should never be used for seed, for 
even when treated thoroughly, some smut is apt 
to appear in the resulting crop." 

It is hardly possible to follow winter wheat with 
winter wheat in Alberta since the harvest occurs 
early in August, only a week or two before the 
next crop should be seeded. It is almost necessary, 
therefore, to seed on summer fallow, unless the 
crop is sown on new breaking as heretofore dis- 



WHEAT 161 

cussed. This method insures a good yield al- 
most every season. 

HARVEST AND THRESHING 

The wheat harvest season in Canada is neces- 
sarily late, beginning the latter part of July in the 
southern latitudes and continuing into September 
in -the more northern sections. Light frosts often 
occur in August, but heavy damaging frosts do not 
usually occur before early September. The 
methods of harvesting are the same as in the 
middle and western states. Both the header and 
the binder are used, the binder being used exclu- 
sively in the eastern provinces. 

Threshing is accomplished by large steam driven 
outfits, and continues late into the fall. In the 
west straw is of little value and is usually burned 
to get it out of the way. 

The grain is handled in bulk through elevators 
the same as in the western states. Most of the 
surplus wheat and flour are shipped to Great 
Britain. The total wheat export of Canada in 
1911 was 60,474,020 bushels of wheat and 3,542,- 
112 barrels of flour (equivalent to 15,939,558 
bushels of wheat, (computing four and one-half 
bushels to one barrel of flour) or a total export of 
76,413,578 bushels of wheat. This is nearly equal 
to the total wheat export of the United States 
which was only 83,329,750 bushels in 1911 (in- 
cluding 11,258,030 barrels of flour). 

The shipping facilities are good considering the 
vastness and newness of the country. Western 
Canada is well supplied with railroads and the 
11 



162 WHEAT 

storage capacity at the many railroad stations 
has kept pace with the rapid increase in wheat 
growing. Western Canada has three trunk lines 
of railroad and these railroads have built thou- 
sands of miles of branch lines and new roads are 
still being built. The Canadian Northern will 
soon complete a new line from northern Sas- 
katchewan to Ft. Churchill on Hudson's Bay 
with the purpose of opening a new water route to 
Europe. The advantage of this Hudson's Bay route 
can not be over-estimated. Ft. Churchill to 
Liverpool is the same distance as New York to 
Liverpool. 

The thousands of miles of railroads and the 
ever improving shipping facilities, the vast areas 
of cheap lands, the remarkably fertile soil, the 
progressive class of settlers who have taken up 
these lands, (largely Americans from Iowa and 
Minnesota and farmers from eastern Canada) 
and the increasing number of new settlers who 
continue to come each year give a very promising 
outlook for the development of the wheat growing 
industry of the great Canadian Northwest. This 
development will do much towards relieving the 
situation as regards the decreasing world's supply 
of food over which some economists have worried 
during the last few years. 



WHEAT 163 

Chapter XIV 
SEEDING MACHINERY 

There are two general methods of seeding 
wheat, broadcasting and drilling. Broadcasting 
is nature's method of distributing seed and was 
the first method employed by man. The seed was 
simply scattered by hand. Hand seeding is still 
practiced in sowing grass and clover, but the hand 
seeding of grain is largely a lost art in this country, 
since machinery for this purpose makes the work 
much easier and more rapid. In parts of Russia 
and in other eastern countries, hand seeding is 
still employed. 

Drilling in shallow furrows made by a shoe or 
disk is now recognized as the best method of 
sowing wheat and most other small grains. Drill- 
ing requires less seed than broadcasting because 
the seed is more evenly distributed and more 
uniformly covered. It is possible to deposit 
the seed in the firm, moist soil which with the 
even depth of planting results in a more rapid, 
stronger and more uniform germination. Because 
of the planting in furrows, drilling also, to some 
extent, decreases the danger of injury by drouth, 
winter killing and soil drifting. 

BROADCAST SEEDING MACHINES 

Broadcast seeding machines are of two general 
classes : 

1. The broadcast sowers which distribute the 
grain by means of a rotating seed plate in the 
bottom of a hopper which feeds the grain to the 



164 WHEAT 

plate at a uniform rate, from which it is thrown 
by the rotating force in every direction. The 
best machine of this type is the endgate seeder 
which operates at the rear end of a wagon box 
and is driven by a gear attached to the wagon 
wheels. Two men and one team can sow fifty 
to seventy-five acres per day with this machine. 

2. The broadcast wheel seeder which is really 
a long hopper, containing many spouts or seed 
cups supported on wheels. In the early forms, 
the grain was simply drawn through the spouts 
or holes in the hopper by gravity and distributed 
more or less uniformly over the ground beneath. 
In the modern seeder the turning wheels drive 
a force feed which carries the grain up from the 
bottom of each seed cup and drops it regularly 
onto a disk or inverted pan from which it is spread 
quite uniformly in all directions by the force of 
gravity. 

Many seeders are provided with shovels which 
drag through the soil thus covering the seed. 
The wheel seeder is probably used more generally 
today than the broadcast sower, but in the seeding 
of wheat it has been largely succeeded by the drill. 

DRILLING MACHINES 

Contrary to the usual understanding, the grain 
drill is a very old implement. The first historical 
mention of grain seeders is by the historian Ardry, 
who states that the Assyrians used grain drills 
many centuries before Christ. 

In 1730, Jethro Tull introduced the grain drill 
into England. The first patent was granted on a 



WHEAT 165 

grain seeding machine in the United States in 1799. 
The rotary seeder was introduced in 1856, the 
grain drill in 1874. 

The grain drill differs from the broadcast 
seeder, (which feeds the seed onto a spreading pan 
or oval disk which causes it to scatter broadcast 
over the ground, when it is covered by the shovels 
or hoes which follow in the rear of the machine), 
in that the seed falls into a grain tube and is 
carried in a steady stream to the bottom of the 
furrow made by the shoe or disk, where it is 
covered by the drag chain or press wheels which 
follow the shoe or disk furrow openers. Thus the 
grain is planted in straight rows or drills in the 
firm moist soil on the floor of the small furrows 
and evenly and regularly covered with mellow or 
pressed soil as may be desired. 

DEVELOPMENT OF FORCE FEED 

The development of the grain drill has been 
rapid. The old gravity feed has been replaced by 
the force feed. The original method was to allow 
the seed to run out through a hole in the bottom 
of the seed cup. An agitator kept the grain 
stirred so that it might feed regularly through the 
openings which could be regulated in size by 
moving a slide. It was not possible to sow very 
evenly with such a drill since the jar of the machine 
as the wheels passed over clods or obstructions 
caused the seed to run irregularly. 

The force feed raises the grain above the bottom 
of the seed cups and forces it out at a regular rate 
by means of grooved wheels or grain pinions 



166 WHEAT 

which are driven by a small revolving shaft con- 
nected with the main shaft by sprocket gears or 
chains. The rate of seeding is regulated by in- 
creasing or decreasing the width of the opening 
through which the grain is forced or by changing 
the speed of the grain pinions by a gear adjust- 
ment. 

The modern force feed drill does its work very 
accurately, and a good drill may be adjusted and 
set to sow very evenly a definite amount of grain 
per acre. 

THREE FORMS OF GRAIN DRILLS 

The modern wheat drill is made in thi'ee general 
forms: 1. Hoe drills. 2. Shoe drills. 3. Disk 
drills. Disk drills are divided into two general 
classes: Single disk drills and double disk drills. 
The shoe and disk drills may have press wheels 
attached in the rear to cover and press the soil 
over the seed, or more commonly short chains 
are used which drag the loose earth into the fur- 
rows and thus cover the seed. 

The hoe drills, which were the first type manu- 
factured, open the furrow with a shovel or point 
which is dragged through the soil and forced down 
by pressure springs. These drills give heavy draft 
and tend to gather trash and clog. 

The shoe drill is an advantage over the hoe 
drill in that the shovel is replaced by a sharpened 
runner or shoe which cuts into the soil, opening a 
V shaped furrow. The shoe drill runs lighter 
and tends to draw over the rubbish to some extent 
and does not gather trash as badly as the hoe 



WHEAT 167 

drill. It is a good drill in a clean well prepared 
seed bed. 

The disk drill has the advantage of the shoe 
drill as a trash rider, since in place of the shoe 
a revolving disk rolls through the soil, riding over 
or cutting under trash and opening a neat furrow 
in which the seed is deposited. The disk drill 
draws a little lighter than the shoe drill and has 
a special advantage in trashy land or hard ground. 
The double disk does nice work in well prepared 
land which is not too hard or trashy, but the 
single disk is superior in hard or trashy ground. 

As a general drill for use on all kinds of ground 
the writer prefers a good single disk drill, but the 
double disk drill and shoe drill have some ad- 
vantages for shallow seeding, as in sowing alfalfa 
or grasses, since their depth of seeding may be 
better controlled. 

Drills are manufactured which make the furrows 
5, 6, 7 and 8 inches apart. When the shoes or 
disks are seven to eight inches apart the machine 
is less likely to clog. The standard drills more 
commonly used make furrows six or seven inches 
apart. 

Drills and seeders are made in standard widths 
varying from eight to fourteen feet. Single drills, 
three feet wide, for sowing wheat between the 
rows of corn are also in common use. In the 
Red River valley four and six horse machines 
having a width of eleven or twelve feet are used. 
One man with a good team can sow thirty acres 
per day with one of these large machines. 

Grain drills may be purchased with grass seeder 



168 



WHEAT 



attachments, when the grass and clover seed may 
be sown at the same time the grain is seeded. The 
grass seeder usually scatters the seed broadcast 
either before or after the opening of the furrows, as 
preferred. The writer prefers an attachment by 
which the grass seed may be run through a tube 
into the drill furrow, thus alfalfa or grasses may 
be seeded alone in drill rows and the depth of 
seeding regulated. 

Modern drills may also be provided with attach- 
ments for distributing fertilizers at the same time 
that the grain is sown. There are several differ- 
ent styles used and most of them do satisfactory 
work. The writer rather prefers to have a separate 
machine for distributing fertilizers. A lime 
spreader will do the work and is needed on many 
farms on which the soil is becoming "worn" and 



"sour." 



-•:^<'r'. 




A t^ecder Tatenttd iu 187ft 



APPENDIX 



INDIVIDUAL PRACTICES 

Seager Wheeler of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, 
who received the prize of $1,000 at the land show 
in New York for the best bushel of wheat, giving 
his experience under Canadian conditions, says: 
''At the time of taking up the matter of seed 
selection I was growing the ordinary Preston 
wheat which was not fixed to a distinct type. This 
wheat at the time was a mixture of reddish and 
white chaff, also was straw colored and red. The 
first year I eliminated the white chaff variety. 
This fixed the color of the chaff but I still had to 
separate the red grain from the yellow in order 
to fix the color. It is not necessary now to do this 
work as the beginner can secure pure-bred seed 
to start with. 

''All this work in selecting by hand would be of 
little benefit if the seed bed were neglected. It 
would be folly to sow good seed on a poorly 
worked or weedy seed bed. Therefore, it is highly 
important to have the seed bed in good condition. 
The two together make for improvement in both 
quality and yield. Such seed should be grown on 
breaking, summer fallow, or root land. 

"I will now outline my method of preparing 
summer fallow. The land should be disked or 
shallow plowed in the fall, the season before. I 
prefer the shallow plowing — at a depth of two 
inches, followed by packing to start weed growth 
in the spring. In the spring if possible, it should 
be given a stroke of the harrows to break up the 



172 APPENDIX 

crust that will form after the snow is gone. As soon 
as possible after seeding time it should be plowed 
deep, care being taken that the furrow is well 
turned down. I use a home-made roller behind 
my gang plow. This packs down the furrow and 
holds the moisture. I would advise every farmer 
to put on a pulverizer attachment behind the 
plow. By this operation my plowing is rolled 
immediately to conserve the moisture. The plow 
is followed by a surface packer to pack it down 
more. After it is packed I use a plank drag similar 
to what is called the King Drag or road drag. 
This is made with two two by eight planks nine 
feet long, placed on edge three feet apart, the 
ends overlapping one foot. Pieces two by six 
are mortised in to hold the planks in place. On 
these boards are nailed for the driver to stand on. 
It is operated at a slight angle. The driver should 
stand on it to do good work, and by shifting his 
position on the drag the angle may be altered to 
suit. The drag is operated up the right hand side 
of the field, crossing at the end and following 
down by the first dead furrow, doing the field in 
sections to avoid waste of time crossing the ends. 
The reason for using the drag is that I want to 
level up the field and put the surface in a uniform 
condition. Should a rain come shortly after, it is 
surprising to see how weeds will germinate. Rain 
penetrates readily when land is in this condition. 
''As soon as possible after a rain, while the soil 
is moist (not wet not dry) it should be harrowed. 
If disking is necessary during the summer the 
drag (plank) will put it in uniform condition again, 



APPENDIX 



173 




to 



174 APPENDIX 

levelling any ridges. Cultivation should be kept 
up to kill weeds and conserve moisture. The next 
spring you will have a firm seed bed in a uniform 
condition. When the seeder goes on a field like 
this you will notice the benefit of the plank 
dragging. The seed bed is uniform and the drill 
plants the seeds at a uniform depth. The surface 
packer follows the drill, not for the purpose of 
packing the root bed but to pack the moist soil 
around the seed to hasten germination. This is 
followed by the harrows. After the grain is up 
four to six inches I harrow to cultivate and kill 
any weeds. The harrows I use are home-made for 
the purpose. They are light and do good work. 
The object is to keep the grain growing by culti- 
vating it. 

'' I also use the plank drag on breaking as well 
as on fall and spring plowing. In plowing in the 
spring for a crop I follow the same method, using 
the packer after the plow. Then comes the drag, 
then the seeder followed by the packer, and then 
the harrows. This insures getting the seed in a 
firm seed bed while moist. Cultivation can be 
done after it is seeded. Fall plowing also is treated 
according to the same method of preparing the 
seed bed. 

''In my opinion it is a mistake to seed fall 
plowing early in the spring. It should be given 
a stroke of the harrows to conserve moisture and 
allow weeds to germinate. It can be sown later 
on, as fall plowing generally matures a crop faster 
than spring plowing, breaking or summer fallow. 
I would sow breaking first and summer fallow 



APPENDIX 175 

next, and then do some spring plowing before 
sowing fall plowing. Many farmers make the 
mistake of sowing fall plowing first and then 
wonder why the crop is light and weedy. 

'' I do not claim that my method is the best that 
can be followed but the principle remains, that 
whatever method is adopted I am a firm believer 
in the plank drag before the seeder. 

''The most important point to insure a good 
quality of grain and increased yield is to sow 
good seed in a good seed bed and have uniformity. 
All these three go hand-in-hand — you cannot 
separate them. 

''By good seed I mean seed of a pure variety, 
well cleaned and free from broken grains, small 
grains, light grains, or immature grains, as well 
as weed seeds, so that the result is uniform seed. 
A good seed bed is one that is well prepared, as 
outlined above, giving a uniform depth, insuring 
uniform germination, uniform growth, uniform 
heading out, uniform ripening, uniform grain for 
the binder to operate on, uniform sheaves, less 
waste in cutting, a uniform surface for the binder 
to run on and make nicely bound sheaves. You 
also have uniform grain of a uniform quality. 
Besides, when the plow goes on the land again it 
runs more smoothly and turns a furrow at a uni- 
form depth. Therefore, uniformity plays a most 
important part, no matter what methods are 
adopted. 

"I wish again to lay stress on the use of the 
plank drag. I would not care to farm without it. 
If I could follow out my own inclination I would 



176 APPENDIX 

follow the plow with a subsurface packer to pack 
down the furrow slice, using the surface packer 
after the seeder, principally to pack the soil 
around the seed. Years ago I used to harrow 
behind the plow in the spring, and harrow and 
harrow, and then wonder why the stools would 
turn yellow and die down in a hot spell in July. 
It also seemed strange that some of the grain 
would germinate at once and some come up later 
after the first rain, resulting in uneven growth. 
My object now is to sow the seed while the seed 
bed is moist and cultivate afterward. I know of 
no better method than that which I have out- 
lined. At least it has always given good results 
with me. When I find a better way I will change 
my system of farming. 

''I have seen men who would go out in the 
spring and plow after a fall of snow while the snow 
lay on the ground. After the grain was up I have 
walked over their fields sinking ankle deep in 
dry dust. Such crops as these suffer in every dry 
spell. 

''Many farmers make great blunders in regard 
to depth of burying their seed. With a seed bed 
prepared, as I have outlined and on soil such as 
we have to deal with, I have concluded that one 
to one and a half inches is the proper depth for 
wheat on summer fallow as well as on thoroughly 
prepared new breaking or fall plowing. For spring 
plowing the best depth is about two inches. The 
important consideration is the moisture line. 
Plant the seed just below the moisture line and 
then pack to insure quick germination. 



APPENDIX 177 

"The prize wheat was sown on April 21 and cut 
on August 28. After sowing it was packed. When 
the grain was up four to six inches high it was 
harrowed by the light harrows for the purpose of 
cultivation. The growth was vigorous and strong. 
I may say that I always harrow growing grain 
whenever possible. The main thing is to have a 
solid seed bed and uniform surface. I run the 
harrows with the drill rows on a hot, dry day to 
kill weeds. Such harrowing does not injure the 
grain. On a loose seed bed, however, harrows 
might smother some grain and also pull some out. 
It is giving attention to small details that counts 
whether we are growing grain for market, for seed, 
or for exhibition purposes — attention to every 
detail in preparing the seed and the seed bed, 
treatment for smut and in the cleaning process. 

"Every farmer should be particular to sow 
only the best seed; he should take care that the 
seeder is cleaned before putting in another variety 
or another kind of grain. Clean off the binder 
to every straw when entering on a field of grain of 
another variety. Such time cannot be counted 
as lost, but rather as gained.'' 



12 



178 APPENDIX 

II 
WHEAT THAT WON THE WORLD'S PRIZE IN 1913 

The wheat that won the world's prize at the 
Dry Farming Congress held at Tulsa, Oklahoma 
in 1913 was grown by Paul Gerlach, Allan, 
Saskatchewan. In addition to the various quali- 
ties that gave this wheat the prize it was remark- 
able in that it broke the world's record in weight, 
weighing seventy-one pounds to the bushel. A 
statement of how this wheat was grown including 
the steps taken in the preparation of the soil 
as well as those in breeding up the seed follows. 

''I am asked to what I attribute my success 
in growing the wheat that took the world's prize 
at the Tulsa Dry Farming Congress. Replying 
I should say to good seed and to feeding the plants 
well. How the seed was originally secured, later 
improved and finally how the soil was tilled shall 
relate. 

"Marquis is a hybrid, having been produced by 
crossing Red Fife with Red Hard Calcutta, and 
the product carefully selected, under the guidance 
of Dr. Saunders at Ottawa. The advantage 
Marquis possesses over Red Fife, is about eight 
to ten days earlier maturity, and about six bushels 
more per acre. The straw is very strong, of 
medium length and the bald heads well chaffed. 
As to milling value it is fully equal to Red Fife. 
Now that Marquis has thrice in succession won 
the World's Championship, there can be no doubt 
as to its superiority. 



APPENDIX 179 

"I came from Detroit, Michigan, seven years 
ago, and located on a homestead eight miles 
south of Allan. I learned after a few years farm- 
ing, that there wa? some danger of a possible 
early frost damaging the wheat, particularly if 
grown on heavy soil and sown late. I noticed 
an article in a farm journal telling of the qualities 
of Marquis. I sent for five pounds, the quantity 
allowed each farmer, and persuaded a few friends 
to secure an equal amount and pass the same on 
to me. In that manner I received fifteen pounds, 
which I sowed on breaking. The product I 
threshed with a flail to assure purity. The next 
year I sowed the wheat on summer fallow, and 
during the growing season I culled out bearded 
heads, other grains, also any stray noxious weeds. 
This plan I followed each succeeding year, using 
great care in threshing to avoid mixing. 

''My 1911 crop was particularly fine, and a 
sample shown at the Provincial Seed Fair, secured 
the championship, scoring ninety-nine points, 
weighing sixty-six and one-half pounds, ranking 
highest in purity and second in milling value in 
its class. 

''The next year my exhibit at the same Fair 
was awarded second prize, scoring 94| points, 
ranking first in purity and milling value. 

METHOD OF SEED SELECTION 

"After winning the Provincial Championship, 
I wrote to Dr. Saunders asking him for a small 
amount of a superior strain of Marquis, if he had 
one, as I wished to get the best available. I also 



180 APPENDIX 

told him what I had done and the result. He 
advised me to select from my own, as there was 
no better to be obtained. I then selected a bushel 
of the choicest kernels, which were sown in our 
garden. After the plants were headed out, I 
carefully culled out all plants not to my fancy. 
I did this at least a dozen times. The product 
of this plot, I recleaned and sowed on summer- 
tilled soil and again the culling process was re- 
sorted to. I can assure you I felt a thrill of joy 
as I rode the binder while cutting this field, the 
straw had just a tinge of green and the grains 
were quite firm. I had sown a bushel to the acre, 
and the yield was thirty-seven bushels. 

"It became evident that I could not get a 
machine to thresh my crop very early, so I hauled 
several loads of sheaves to the barn, the remainder 
was left in the stook or stack. It was the wheat 
stored in the barn that won at Tulsa, Oklahoma, 
weighing slightly over seventy-one pounds to 
the bushel, which I understand is a world's 
record. 

''The other wheat was threshed late, causing 
a loss of several bushels per acre and of a somewhat 
bleached sample, which, however, would not im- 
pair its value for seed. 

''I am still further improving my wheat by 
hand selection. While culling over the small 
field above mentioned, I noticed some plants 
showing a superiority over the others, the heads 
were nearly square, filled from end to end with 
large kernels. I spent three days selecting a sack 
full of these heads which I threshed in a bag to 



APPENDIX 181 

avoid any possible mixture. Last spring I sowed 
this seed in the garden and after the plants were 
headed, I weeded out any heads not true to the 
type I desired. As soon as the grain was ripe I 
selected a sack full of heads conforming to my 
ideal. These will be threshed and sown next 
year. I shall continue improving my wheat if 
such is possible. 

I FOLLOW THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

"Now as to how I till the soil. My main effort 
is to conserve moisture, in this I try to follow the 
Campbell system of soil culture, (Campbell Soil 
Culture Co., Lincoln, Nebraska). Our soil is a 
moderately heavy chocolate clay loam and works 
up nicely if done at the proper time. In preparing 
summer fallow, I prefer starting the year before, 
by following the binder with a disk harrow, disking 
the stubble as soon as the grain is cut, keeping 
far enough away from the standing grain to permit 
the large wheel of the binder to travel on solid 
ground. As long as the straw is standing it acts as 
a blanket on the earth preventing evaporation to 
a large extent. As soon as the straw is removed 
the protection is gone and sun and wind soon 
dry out the surface. By disking as stated, I 
gain in various ways. First, I break up the cap- 
illarity of the surface soil to prevent the loss of 
moisture through evaporation. Second, the soil 
is in splendid shape to receive a rain and permit 
the water to enter the soil quickly and to 
escape through evaporation very slowly. Third, 
by thoroughly mixing stubble, weeds, roots, 



182 APPENDIX 

straw, etc., with the soil, the surface two 
inches or more, when turned under with 
a plow, will produce a fine root bed, whereas if 
all this material were left, as is often the case 
on most farms, without disking, the dry earth, 
stubble, etc., would be turned under all in one 
mass, causing an open dry, condition which must 
be an inhospitable home for the roots of plants. 
Water from below the depth of the furrow cannot 
reach the roots, neither can the roots reach the 
water. As soon as the moisture in the surface 
soil is exhausted the plants suffer. Fourth, by 
covering weed seeds at this time, many will be 
started to grow and freeze during the winter. 
Those that do not die, or those that fail to grow 
during the autumn, will grow early the next spring 
and are then cared for. 

''I do not recommend burning the stubble, 
unless there is too much of it to disk under. In 
cases where a large amount of stubble is present 
and many noxious weeds as well, I would certainly 
resort to burning. I desire to put back into the 
land as much humus as I can. By destroying 
the stubble by fire, you do not improve your soil. 

HOW SUMMER TILLING IS DONE 

''After seeding is finished in the spring, I disk 
the land to be summer tilled. This will kill many 
weeds and cause others to grow ; it also opens the 
soil to receive and retain the rains. As soon as 
the weeds have started growing, I begin plowing. 
I turn a furrow of about six inches, and shall go 
a little deeper each year until a sufficient depth 



APPENDIX 



183 




<! 

0) 

H 

I 

oo 

CO 

bio 



184 APPENDIX 

is reached. I follow with the subsurface packer 
every half day. This I consider important as 
the soil is then in splendid shape to be packed, 
it is soft and pliable, air spaces are crowded out, 
capillarity is re-established and plant food is 
being manufactured. I harrow each day's plow- 
ing before night to conserve what moisture I have. 
After each rain that settles the mulch sufficiently 
to permit the capillary movement of the water 
to the surface, I go over the field with the acme 
harrow, this kills weeds and produces a perfect 
mulch. I desire to keep the soil as black as pos- 
sible during the season, if weeds are allowed to 
grow they take away the moisture intended for 
the wheat. 

LIGHT SEEDING AND HARROWING 

''On the field that produced the wheat shown 
at Tulsa, I sowed one bushel per acre, to a depth 
of three inches, well into the moist soil and just 
below the mulch. I do not recommend that 
amount on all soils or under all conditions. The 
seed was treated with formalin by means of an 
immersion bath. After drilling, the ground was 
packed with a corrugated packer, this pressed 
the soil particles close to the grain, bringing mois- 
ture to them, resulting in an even germination. 
By firming the surface, the moisture was brought 
from the lower, into the upper soil, causing any 
weed seeds that were near the surface to grow 
and these were harrowed out just as the wheat 
emerged above the ground. I use a lever harrow 
with the teeth set at an angle of about forty-five 



APPENDIX 185 

degrees. When the wheat had attained a height 
of about four inches, a rain fell which settled the 
mulch, and the day following we again harrowed 
the field, getting rid of many weeds and re- 
establishing the mulch to conserve moisture and 
allow a more perfect circulation of air in the soil. 
There was nothing further done until the heads 
were visible. I then hired a man and it became 
his duty to cull out any plants not true to type, 
other grains, or noxious weeds, in fact, I do this 
with all my fields. 

''I am convinced that if farmers understood 
the controlling of moisture and the manufacture 
of plant food better, there would be less crop 
failures. Let me draw a simile: Suppose I were 
to live entirely on broth. I would place a vessel 
containing water over a fire, and in it a quantity 
of meat, preferably cut into smaller pieces. The 
chemical change now taking place in the water 
would be caused by heat. The heated water 
extracts the nutriment from the meat. The 
longer the extracting process goes on, the stronger 
becomes the broth, the less of it I would require 
to satisfy my bodily need. A small amount of 
the concentrated broth would be as nourishing 
as a large amount of the weaker. 

" Now, how is that simile applied to soil culture 
and plant growth? If I mix the stubble, straw, 
manure and so forth with the surface soil, then 
turn it into the bottom of the furrow and pack 
it down well, I crowd out all air spaces and bring 
moisture to the material I turned under, which 
causes it to decay — ^forming plant food. By 



186 APPENDIX 

harrowing after each rain of any consequence I 
prevent the escape of moisture. By plowing 
early in the season (for summer fallow) I have my 
food factory at work a long time, and under the 
effect of the heat caused by the summer's sun, 
a large amount of plant food is extracted from the 
material plowed down or from the soil particles 
and held in soluble form, which is the only form in 
which plants can partake of the food. The richer 
the food, the less each plant requires. 

'' I tilled the soil which produced the prize wheat 
as nearly as possible along the lines I have in- 
dicated, and by sowing only a bushel to the acre, 
did not crowd the plants, but each had a full 
supply of rich food, the result was, the world's 
best and heaviest wheat, over seventy-one pounds 
to the bushel. The 1911 Prize Wheat weighed 
sixty-five, the 1912, sixty-four. 

''I was greatly pleased at my wheat winning, 
but I have greater pride in the knowledge that 
the seed that produced the wheat has been brought 
to such a state of perfection on our own farm, 
after years of painstaking effort, under the joint 
care of my wife and myself. I give full credit 
to her for her share.'' 



APPENDIX 187 

III 
HOW TO RUN A BINDER 

The best machine ever made is worthless in 
the hands of the man who has not sufficient 
knowledge of its mechanism to adjust it properly 
and to care for and repair it. The following advice 
on how to run a binder by Persey Wastle and 
published in the Scientific Farmer is so full 
of practical hints that it is reproduced verbatim. 

It seems that there is a dearth of advice in our 
agricultural papers concerning the operating of 
farm machinery, excepting probably, the gasoline 
engine. We read a great deal of how to take care 
of our implements when not working, such as 
oiling them and putting them away under cover, 
all of which is very important, but I think a few 
pointers on how to run them when in the field 
would not come amiss. 

I wish to deal with the self binder, one of the 
most ingenious, and also one of the greatest labor 
saving machines in existence. We will suppose 
the grain is nearly ripe ; so we will pull the binder 
out of the shed, where it has been carefully housed 
since last harvest, though this is rarely the case 
in the west. I have generally noticed them, or 
at least all one could see of them for weeds, 
standing in the corners of the fields, where they 
were left the year before. 

The first thing to do is to go all over the binder 
with a wire pick, and clean the oil holes. It is 
advisable while doing this to notice if there are 
any broken parts, so they can be sent to town for 



188 APPENDIX 

immediate repair. Next, the bearings must be 
well oiled, so the oil will have a chance to get 
worked into the bearings. 

If the knife is still in the binder, it should now 
be pulled and sharpened, if it is a plain one, 
or if a rough edge sickle broken sections should 
be knocked off and replaced by new ones. 

The canvases should now be overhauled. 
Buckles, straps and slats should be replaced where 
they are broken or worn out. Patches should be 
sown on the holes, as here is where a great deal 
of trouble is often met with. Leaves and straws 
go through the holes and wrap around the rollers. 
This makes the roller too large, and thus jambs 
the canvas against the frame of the machine, 
causing the canvas to stop, sometimes tearing 
off slats or buckles. Before putting on the canvas, 
be sure that all rollers run free, and also that the 
frames are square. The canvas will not run true 
if they are not, but will run towards one corner. 
This, of course, will tear them. 

In order to make the frame true, take a car- 
penter's square; hold the long end against the 
frame, the other against the roller. You will 
then see exactly how much they are out, and by 
screwing up the truss rods correct the fault. 

The reel is one of the most important parts of the 
binder, yet few farmers seem to think so, judging 
by the way they have it tied up with binder twine, 
wire, etc. Unless there is a good reel on a binder, 
it will not make a good sheaf. The shape of 
a sheaf is determined by the way the grain is 
laid on the platform canvas. Unless the reel is 
perfectly true, it will not lay the grain so that 



APPENDIX 189 

a good sheaf can be made of it. In order to ac- 
complish this, each slat of the reel must be par- 
allel to the platform; that is both ends must be 
parallel to the platform. Also one end must not 
be ahead of the other. 

We now have everything ready to start. The 
horses are hitched on and away we go to the field. 
Well, the sheaves are considered too small; we 
must make them larger. I think I have heard 
about a dozen different ways to accomplish this, 
and there are but three. The simplest way is to 
tighten up the screw on the trip. If this is not 
enough, lower the trip; and still another way is 
to slide the sheaf holder in towards the binder. 
This gives the grain less leverage on the trip, 
and thus makes a larger bundle. These methods 
apply to one of our own best known makes of 
binders. 

Now that we have the sheaf adjusted to the 
required size, everything ought to go lovely. 
But troubles never come singly. ' The binder is 
missing sheaves. What now? Get a monkey 
wrench and tighten or loosen something on the 
knotter mechanism? No, certainly not; not 
until we find what the trouble is. First go to the 
twine box; ascertain if the twine is running freely. 
If all is well here, follow up the twine and see if 
the binder is threaded rightly. Next try the ten- 
sion. If the tension is too tight, this will make 
the knotter miss, as it is liable to pull the twine 
out of the twine holder or disk. If not tight 
enough, the machine will also miss. If the twine 
is running right, the tension right, the binder 



190 APPENDIX 

threaded all right, then the trouble must be at 
the knotter. Now it is no use looking at the knot- 
ter because unless it is badly out of tune, it looks 
the same whether it is in perfect working order 
or not. Then what are we to do? We must 
look at the twine, when the binder misses, and 
ascertain what it is doing. If the twine is cut 
off square with the curl at the end, we may be 
certain that the disk or twine holder is not tight 
enough. By tightening this up very little at a 
time, we will eventually remedy the trouble. 
If, on the other hand, the twine is pulled off to a 
point, the disk is too tight and is cutting the twine. 
By slacking the disk, this can be corrected. To 
ascertain if there is anything wrong with the bill- 
book, examine a sheaf that it tied. If the knot 
is pulled very tight and the ends of the twine 
frayed away, the billhook is too tight. If the 
knot is very slack and near the ends of the twine, 
the billhook is too slack. When oihng the ma- 
chine, examine the needle to find if any foreign 
leaves or other matter has gathered in the eye; 
sometimes obstructions become wedged in so 
tightly that the twine will not run through, caus- 
ing the knotter to miss sheaves. 

Always run the binder as nearly level as possible. 
Never have it tilted back, as this will make it 
hard to pull; have it tilted forward enough to 
make it balance a little dow^n in front. If it is 
thrown too much forw^ard, it causes too much 
weight on the horses' necks, or, if there is a truck, 
too much weight on the little wheels, thus taking 
the driving power off the main wheel. 



APPENDIX 



191 



If the binder suddenly sticks, never whip up 
the horses to start it. Get off and find the trouble. 
Probably a stick or root has got into the knife 
or a nut has dropped off somewhere and got be- 
tween two cog wheels. When these things are 
cleared away, you may get on the machine and 
start away again. 

Run the reel as high as possible without letting 
any grain fall forward, and always tie the sheaf 
as near the center as possible. 

After the first half day a person should exper- 
ience very Itttle trouble in running a binder. In 
fact, if a binder is well cared for each year, it 
will start off without any trouble. 




Fig. 39. — A field of Marquis wheat. 



INDEX 

A 

Acme harrow, 143 
Alaska wheat, 21 
Alberta Red wheat, 142, 143 
Alfalfa as a fertilizer, 112 

B 

Backsetting, 148, 149, 151, 159 

Binder, how to operate, 187 

Bluestem wheat, 22 

Breaking prairie sod, 148; deep breaking, 151 



California, methods of farming in, 123; old methods, 124 

Campbell packer, 44 

Campbell system, 181 

Canada, culture methods in, 146; development of, 14; part 

of Great Plains, 134; rainfall in, 137; soil of, 135; wheat 

areas, 138; wheat production, 12 
Capillarity, how to restore, 46 
Cereals of America, 6; world's production, 9, 10 
Chinch bug, 92, 94 

Climate, influence of, 32; wheat requirements, 38 
Club Head wheat, 22, 23; on Pacific coast, 129 
Combine, 73, 74; where used, 74; in California, 121 
Community seed, 36 
Cost of production, 88; in different countries, 89; on Pacific 

coast, 133 
Cultivation, after seeding, 65, 184; shallow furrow, 57 

D 

Disk cultivator, 48 

Durum wheat, 22, 23, 25; in Canada, 141 

E 

Egyptian wheat, 21 

Elevators, co-operative, 87; independent, 85 

Embryo, 19 

Endosperm, 19 

F 
Fertilization, green manure, 117; manure, 115; summer 

fallowing, 117; use of straw, 114 
Fertilizers needed Ijy wheat, 108 
Formaldehyde for stinking smut, 96; a poison, 97 



INDEX 193 

G 

Ghirka wheat, 22 

Grading of wheat, 85 

Grain, color, 19; physical parts, 19; variation in size, 19 

Grain weevil, 95 

Green manuring, effect of, 119; at Fort Hays station, 117 

H 

Harvest, 70; date of, 72; in Canada, 161; methods of, 73 

Header, 72 

Hessian fly, 59, 92, 94 

Hopkins, opinion of, 112 

I 
Individual practices, 169 
Inspection of wheat, 86, local grains, 86 

K 

Kharkof wheat, 29, 142, 143 

L 
Legumes as fertilizers, 112; in rotation, 39 
Listing, 17; advantages of method, 49; contour, 51; depth of, 
49; for wheat, 47; effect on yield, 52 

M 
Macaroni wheat, 25, 26 

Marketing of wheat, 81, 82; prices, 84; tricks of, 84 
Marquis wheat, 179 
Mixed farming, system of, 107 

N 
Nitrogen in soil, 110; in clover crop, 113; in roots of alfalfa, 

112 

P 
Pacific coast, wheat growing on, 122 
Packing with subsurface packer, 56 
Pasturing wheat, 67, 68 
Plant food, amount removed by wheat, 113; constituents of, 

110; development of, 41; digestion of, 41; made available, 

41 
Plowing, 43; deep, 47; fall, 155; in California, 128; shallow, 

54 
Prize wheat 1911, 177; of 1913, 178 

R 
Red Fife wheat, 22; early maturing, 40; origin of, 139 
Rolling wheat, 67 
Root system of wheat, 16, 37 
Rotation of crops to prevent drifting, 55; influence on wheat 

yields, 108; in Canada, 157; plans of, 102; for semi-arid 

land, 104 
Rust of wheat, 95 



194 INDEX 

s 

Saunders, work of, 143 

Scoring wheat, 90; score card, 91 

Seed, adaptation of, 29; breeding, ^2; cleaning and grading, 

30; germination of, 16 
Seed bed, firming of, 44; physical condition, 42; requirements, 

40, 175 
Seeding, depth of, 62; early, 59; methods of, 60; thickness of, 

61, 184 
Seeding machinery, 163; broadcast seeder, 163; drills, 164, 

165; disk drill, 167; forms of drills, 166 
Shocking, 75; kinds of shocks, 76 
Shrinkage of grain, 82 

Smut, damage from, 95; treatment of, 31, 96; hot water treat- 
ment, 98; loose smut, 97 
Soil drifting, how to prevent, 55, 56; deep furrows, 58 
Soil fertility, how maintained, 100; cause of loss, 101 
Soil moisture, 45, 46; conservation of, 129, 153, 154 
Soil mulch, 44 
Soil required by wheat, 38 
Spring mowing, 69 
Spring wheat, 11; on fallow land, 50 
Stacking, 77; how to begin, 78; how to complete, 79; not when 

damp, 81 
Subsurface packer, 44; Dunham packer, 47 
Summer fallow, 51; clean summer fallow, 152; cultivation of, 

174; in regions of light rainfall, 152; methods of, 53 
Summer tilling, 49, 54, 55; in Canada, 182; in California, 125 

T 
Threshing directly from the shock, 81; from the field, 83 
Trap crops, 94 
Turkey Red wheat, 22, 29, 30 

W 
Washington, culture methods in, 127 
Weeds, 92 
Wheat, countries, 11; chemical composition of, 28; flower 

and fruit, 16; hard wheat, 25; milling varieties, 23; 

Russian, 31; soft wheat, 24; stooling, 17; types of, 21; 

varieties, 20. 
Wheat-sick land, 102 
Winter killing on drilled land, 60; causes of, 63, 64; to prevent, 

65 
Winter wheat, 11; followed by potatoes, 60; on Pacific coast, 

131; preparation of land for, 158; quantity of seed, 160; 

time to sow, 160; varieties in Canada, 142 
Y 
Yields of wheat, cause of low yields, 70 

Z 
Zavitz, work of, 144 













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